That One "Special" Calf

I'd like you to meet "Superman".  He is a very distinctly marked calf, with most of his body being white.  So it's very easy to pick him out of a crowd....

I'm not all sure why this happens....  But it seems that without fail, in every herd of cattle, there is one special calf.  It doesn't matter if your herd has one hundred calves or ten, like mine.  There is one calf that stands out right away.  He's the one who will push through the feed room door and just about knock you over, just to see what's in there.  The one who tells his buddies to squeeze through that hole in the fence to check out "greener pastures."  He doesn't care if he's been munching all morning, he'll stand there and bawl real loud, just to see if you'll dish out more groceries.  Or maybe he'll just absolutely refuse to move to the next pasture.... even when the water is frozen solid, there's a blizzard going on, it's -20 degrees below zero and his life literally depends on moving through that gate.  Nope.... forget it.... ain't gonna happen.

That's what Superman was up to on Friday.  I had to move the calves to another pasture due to their automatic waterer refusing to operate properly at -25 below.  The wind was blowing pretty good, so it was kicking up a little ground blizzard.  I was dressed in my super duper winter gear and was still getting chilled to the bone.  The exposed skin around my eyes was burning and I knew I was at risk of frostbite.

I called to my "babies" and they followed me and the bucket of feed I was shaking, right across the road and through the gate.  All but two anyway.... One of them was "Peter".  He's always been a slowpoke at most things. But eventually, he did decided to amble over and through the gate.  Superman was bringing up the rear.  It looked as though we was going to cooperate for once.  He followed Peter through the gate.... But as soon as he got past the gate post, he screeched to a halt and took off the other direction at a run.  He trotted all the way back where he came from.  So I trudged through the snow drifts and fought the bitter wind again.  Got some more feed in my bucket and called, begged and pleaded for him to follow me.  He just stood there.... I tried chasing him.  But with my bum leg from a badly pulled muscle and the snowdrifts, I wasn't making a very good "cow horse".  So I gave up.  I threw a bale of hay over the fence and slammed that gate shut.  Then I had to rig some water up for him for the night.  By the time I got back inside I thought I'd never thaw out!

The next morning, my "special" calf was at the gate, bawling to please go over across the road with his buddies!  I happily opened the gate....

He quickly found his friends up in the corral with the horses and alpacas all sharing a hearty breakfast.  Then he had the nerve to not even say thank-you!

So I leave you with a moo....

Bye for now,
PB