MAD COW! MAD COW! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

It wasn't a "fun" morning on the Hillbilly Hill...we had an attack of the mad cow this morning....

As usual, things started out with a jaunt up (and over) the hill to retrieve the cows from their jungle haven. They really like it down there, because the grass is nice and tender, it shady (VERY shady), and LOTS of space to hide in.

I now know where the term "cowhide" comes from, because they LOVE to hide....

At any rate, on the trip up the hill to the barn, I noticed Snowflake had something hanging off the side of her face. Thinking it was just a "sticker" from a bush, I walked up to her to remove it. Unfortunately, upon further review, it was not a sticker, or weed, or any other kind of vegetation - it was a 1/4" round piece of steel rod that was hooked inside her eye socket -

and she wasn't to thrilled about me touching it.

Well, right then and there, I knew this Sunday morning wasn't going to be a normal Sabbath morning, but I continued with getting them in for milking anyhow. Afterwords, I went inside to call the Vet, and tell my lovely wife what I had found. The Vet told me that she COULD pull it out, but it wouldn't be very cost effective because she wouldn't do much more then what I would - pull it out, then spray it with something.

Now, this particular cow s pregnant, and does NOT like to be in the barn - I guess she is claustrophobic, or something. At any rate, it's VERY hard to get her into the BARN, let alone the stanchion - especially if she knows you want her to go there. She will follow the other girls into the back room of the barn, but leaves when a person walks in.

So, there we were - Hillbilly, Wife of Hillbilly, and Sister-in-Law of Hillbilly, trying to get the cow to cooperate and git in the barn. We put in a few posts, wired up a few panels, and made a "lane" to funnel her beside the barn.
We ALMOST had her on the first try - until she figured out what we wanted. Then, it was three stupid humans against one determined cow - and the cow was WINNING.

After about an hour, we FINALLY got her to go into the back room of the barn with the other cows. Now, we had to chase them through, leave her in there, then funnel her to the stanchion. All was going well, until she decided to take on the door, and rip the chain off of it so she could escape to freedom.

Next, we reinforced the doors, and funneled all the cows through once again. THIS time, we actually got the right cow in the milk room....

But not in the stanchion. She fought and fought, until we decided to just (hopefully) tie her to the head stall(since she refused to stick her head IN it), and work from there. Well, we got her tied, and I whipped out my pliers to grab a hold of that metal rod. I pulled hard enough that the pliers slipped off and went flying, but the rod held fast.

Now, she REALLY wasn't happy! She fought the rope for a bit, then lay down on the floor. I seized my chance, grabbed the pliers, got a GOOD hold on the rod, and worked it out of her eye socket.



My lovely wife then handed me the spray, and the job was done - except....

We had forgotten to hatch an "exit strategy"....

I knew that cow was not a happy cow, and could feel her pulling on the rope, I held it as tight as I could and yelled for the two women to "Get out of the barn, NOW!".

All I saw were two girls running for their lives, trying to open a latched door, and a cow trying to get up off the floor and head for freedom. Somehow, my lovely wife PASSED my SIL, opened the door, and hit daylight at a dead run. She - for SOME reason - stopped about ten feet outside, and tried to hide behind a metal "T" post, while my SIL dove in behind her.

I held the rope as long as I could, and my last sight of the cow was her heading for the door, at Warp 9 with the rope still around her neck (loosely). I walked outside, and saw her (the cow) standing just up the hill from the barn with that rope dangling from her neck.

There was NO way I was getting close enough to get it, so I just let her calm down awhile (I did get it off her about an hour later).

I turned and saw those two women laughing hysterically about trying to hide behind that T post. It's one of those times when I wish I had had my video camera going.....I can just envision the theme song from "Benny Hill" playing in the background as they got out of the barn, and made themselves "small" ....

It might be a good thing the cow could only see out of one eye at the time...