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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Chuck Has A Headache....

As if being blind wasn't enough, now the poor guy has a headache.....

Chuck is usually a pretty laid back kinda guy. He wanders around the paddock, dodges trees and gets irritated when Mabel and Belle ignore him. Toss out some hay - he moseys on over - corn stalks require a bit more excitement.....

GRAIN, however elicits a genuine, heel kickin', blind man's run, straight (sort of) to the the feed pan.

I don't even have to really CALL him, either, he hears me shake the bucket and knows right off what that sound means.

Woe be unto anyone who gets in his way (well, except Mabel....)! He likes to run with his nose about 3" off the ground, and makes a bee-line for where (or rather, where he THINKS) the bucket is.

Unfortunately, he sometimes mistakes the sound of grass crunching under my boots for grain. This CAN be a problem.....

Especially when he moves quicker then I do.

Did I mention that he runs with his nose to the ground? Picture a good old hound dog running a scent through the woods.....Now, replace the dog with a 400 pound Black Angus who lives in the dark.

Before you complete your picture, try NOT to have yourself standing in the way of this charging Rhino....

Sometimes, I just CAN'T get out of the way, and good old Chuck tries to play rodeo. On this particular day, Chuck just slides right between my legs and I go sliding up his back.

With a goat, you just stand a little taller, and they continue on out the other side. Not so with a cow.

You end up going for a little rodeo ride - mostly because the critter is too tall to slide out from under you.

So, there I were - bucket in one hand, cane in the other, and my feet about a foot off the ground. Chuck was still looking for his grain (which was still in the bucket), Belle was standing nearby, trying to avoid us, and Mabel was shaking her head - and probably laughing at the crazy blind guy and the stupid human rider.

Every time Chuck moved, the grain rattled in the bucket, causing him to go in search of where the sound came from. The rider (me) couldn't get a firm grip on the ground because my toes wouldn't stretch far enough.

I'm not entirely sure how I ended my rodeo ride, but I DID stay on for over 8 seconds. I THINK Chuck stopped long enough for me to slide back down his neck, and finally get a grip on Terra Firma. It was a fun ride, but I was glad to be able to dump his feed in the pan and get out of his way.

He doesn't MEAN to do things like this, he just is in a hurry to find food, and I didn't get out of the way....

Other things get in his way, too. Namely, Belle, Mabel, chickens, trees, fences, the water tank, etc, etc, etc.....

He knows when he hits Mabel....he bounces and she returns the favor. I think she has been hanging out where she can watch the goats - she's picked up a few "head butt" pointers.....

Yesterday morning, I was out with his bucket - and carefully watching where he was coming from. Sure enough, he was about 100' away and came RUNNING when he heard the grain.

Now, being the kinda guy I am (you fill in the blank....), I have the feed pan over by the calf shed I built. The bucket shakes, Chuck's radar goes up, his nose goes down, and his feet spring into action (I, hopefully, get out of the way...).

I could see it coming from the very start, so I frantically called his name, slapped the pan, and rattled the bucket.

All to no avail. I couldn't save poor Chuck. He missed the feed pan by a good 8' and ran headlong into the side of the shed......

It left a dent in the building, so it MUST have left a dent in Chuck's forehead. He stood back, shook his head, muttered something unrepeatable under his breath, then followed the sound of Belle's chomping to the pan.

One thing is for sure - the calf shed is MUCH better at rodeo then I am.....

3 comments:

  1. ROFL, you had me crying as I read this because I was laughing so hard...Love your funny animal stories! :)

    Deb

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  2. Poor Chuck!! I can only imagine the shock of hitting the shed instead of a pan of lovely grain!! You must have been laughing so hard! That's just hilarious!

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  3. Hilarious!!!! Thanks for sharing!

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