Hate, Discontent, and Riots

There comes a time in every young dairy calf's life where they start spending nights away from momma. This is so the evil Hillbilly farmer can steal their breakfast. It makes baby hungry and mad, it makes mom angry and mad, and make the Hillbilly farmer have to put up with all kinds of bellering and rioting in the barn.

But hey, the cheese, cream, and yogurt is good!

Last night was the night for poor old (young) Stew. He was forced to watch his mom from the wrong side of the fence, and not be able to do anything about it but cry for a snack. Mom (Daisy), for her part, did her share of voicing her disapproval at the new "sleeping" arrangements.

Then, you add in the goats to the mix. I doubt ANYONE slept much last night - I heard the bellering from the house at 2:00 am! People were DEFINITELY cranky this morning!

The goats were in the far corner of the pen, trying to stay as far away from that noisy calf as they could. Even the Three Monsters were in hiding - I only rousted them when they realized it was time for breakfast. That's when the fun began.

Three Monsters hollering at the side door, momma cow hollering at the back door, calf hollering behind the barn, cats hollering under foot, momma goats hollering out in the paddock for THEIR food, and Yani barking at....well, just barking (she'd already been fed). I could even hear Chuck and Belle answering Daisy in the distance.

About the only ones who WEREN'T hollering were the goats across the driveway - but only because they were stuffing their pointy little faces with apples I had tossed over the fence - otherwise, they'd have been in on it, too.

Mabel was the lone good critter. She calmly went about her business in order to get out and graze. After all, it wasn't HER rug rat who was starving to death....

I finally stole about as much of Stew's food as I could - I left him the two back quarters to finish out (and a bit of the front ones because I ran out of "bucket space"...), so I let Daisy loose to go rescue her child. She zipped past me, out the door, and ran to where Stew was (he had since moved to the side of the barn, and they were talking through the wall at each other). I actually had to grab Stew by the halter and shove him toward the open gate. Once he FOUND the gate though, he had ZERO problems running through to mom's awaiting teats.

I finished up inside, milked Mabel, fed the monsters, fed the kittens, and got outta dodge. The only mishap of the morning was a kitten's tail got flattened by Daisy. It was a total accident, but the cat bugged out REAL quick and has (hopefully) learned a valuable lesson.

Speaking of cats ---

I guess what they say about them having "nine lives" is correct - or at least SEEMS to be.

Last year, we had a stray black cat "adopt" us. She ended up having 3 kittens - two survived. Well - to make a long story short - we started loosing chicks, and adult chickens. Some can be attributed to bold coyotes (one came with 15' of the house the other day, and grabbed a chicken), but I saw this black cat grab a small hen and run off with it.

It would have to go.

Now, life on the farm also includes things other people don't like to think about - getting rid of animals that are detrimental to the others on the farm. Last Thursday was one of those times.

I captured the offending cat, grabbed my pistol, then took her out to the "back forty" to "do the deed". It's not a job I LIKE, but it needed done.

All was well again - sort of.

Saturday afternoon, I go out to the barn and see the black cat playing with her two kittens! I just figured I was seeing things, or got a bad taco or something and it was affecting my eyesight.

Then, Sunday evening, Deb hollers and points out the window at a black cat walking across the yard toward the barn. Mass hallucination can't be blamed on bad tacos....
The cat was BACK.

I went outside and she let me come up to her and pet her. Nope, no bullet holes.

I know for a FACT that I DID NOT MISS from 3" away - and the thing was dead when I left it.

Now, she looks at me with those yellow eyes and I'm not sure weather to trust her or not. I've heard stories about cats hopping on your chest while you sleep and stealing your breath...

Cats are inherently evil, anyway. No telling what THIS cat is capable of now.

I'm just gonna sleep with one eye open for awhile.....

Just in case...