Yesterday morning, as we were leaving for church, we drove down to Mum and Dad's house to get the work truck (we'd had a lot of rain over the days leading up to Sunday and the roads were a little too slick to get Michael's car out). As we pulled up to their passenger gate, we saw a little newborn calf on the inside of their house yard. He was sleeping under the jasmine bush! :) And Mummy was no-where to be seen.
So we went inside and told Mum and Dad about the little fella - Mum thought I was joking! And we decided that we'd see if his mummy came back to collect him later on, and if not it looked like we were going to hand-raise another calf.
While we were at church, Michael expressed his intense dislike of hand-raising a calf and tried to convince me that Dad would have already turned him into baby veal before we got home! (Not a very Christ-like attitude if you ask me!)
When we finally got home he was still there!! I was so excited! Although obviously not happy that his mummy had abandoned him, I was still seeing the positive side of things :) We (ok, really it was all me) decided to nick-name him Wing-Nut as he had beautiful big Brahman ears that stuck straight out from his head! LOL!
So we went up to our house for a nap (it was raining pretty hard so we thought we'd wait til it slackened off a little before we tried to feed him) and about an hour or two later when I went back down again...he was GONE!!
I ran inside with visions running through my head of Michael being correct in assuming Dad had done him in - visions of the freezer being fuller than when I'd left earlier...and cornered Mum in the office. I demanded to know what had become of Wing-Nut. After a shocked initial reaction, Mum patiently explained that Wing-Nut's mummy had come back and was trying to feed him through the fence so her and Dad had herded him out the gate and back to his mummy. (Turns out she was a first time mum and hadn't yet realised that she was supposed to keep him with her at all times). Very disappointing! Michael was over the moon when I told him though :)
Ohhhh. I was all excited for you having a cute little food-storage animal to raise! lol! Okay, I'm just joking (sister of Michael, can you tell?!). Actually, I was really excited for you to have a cute little calf to raise, and was actually a little disapointed that you had to give him back to his Mum :(
ReplyDeleteYou did the right thing though *sigh*. I suppose it's best that he be raised by his mum. *sigh*
:) Did you get any photos of wingnut before he left? You should post them if you did!
xo Tammy
PS. Micky was OBVIOUSLY praying that the mother would come back... at least you know that sometimes his prayers get answered... lol!
Haha! Ohh!! I just read Tammy's comment above! Isn't she awful! She used to call our pet goldfish 'food storage' too.
ReplyDeleteBec, you sound all maternal! I used to tell people who asked if we had any pets, that we have children instead - and you are like the reverse :)
Speaking of much-loved pets - how is Molly going? And when do you get some chickens?
xo
Hahaha. Wing-Nut is just a cute little name! I'm impressed with the name picking choice there Bec.
ReplyDeleteShame the mum came back :S How demanding of her, wanting her own child and everything. GOSH!
Much lovin,
The Bethstar*
PS. I will admit though, I am a little curious to see what sort of reaction your Dad would have gotten from you had he tried to feed you song Wing-Nut for dinner :P
PPS. I love the pink blog!
ReplyDeleteShame on you Tammy!! He was not going to be 'food storage'! He was going to be loved! LOL! Nah, didnt get any photos but we'll see him around once the rain stops and the cows come back down the hill again. (When it rains all of our cattle go up the mountains as there is then green pick for them, and then they come down again a week or two after the rain stops to look for water. They are Brahmins so this is what they do...if they were stupid Herefords they wouldn't be smart enough to get out of the creek crossing - regardless of it flooding!)
ReplyDeleteYeah - GOOD ON YOU MICHAEL! If it wasnt for his ferverent prayers we'd have a cute little calf to raise! :)
Molly is good - she spent the day hangin' out with Grandma (personally I think she just likes going there for the treats!).
No chooks yet - the pressure's on Michael to get it done by the time I come back from my next block!LOL!
To be honest Bethy - I think you're mocking me...you're mocking me, aren't you! :)
Haha! I just read your comment on my blog, and told micky he's in trouble :) He gave a little laugh to make me think he wasn't scared, but I caught the nervous wobble :)
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I told him he didn't have time to play the wii either! Men! When will they ever listen to the (obviously) wiser women around them?!
xo Tammy