The Animals

When we first moved up here, my very good friend's parents asked us to take care of their animals while they went on a trip to visit their kids and relatives for two weeks. I quickly responded that it would be no problem and we would be happy to do it.

Like planned we began taking care of

Sydney the Horse


Max the Bull


Ingrid and Kierstin the Heifers


and the Dandruff Cat on March 31.


The first couple of days were uneventful and went relatively smooth. Then, on Tuesday April 3 it all began. Justin was getting home very late that night from work because he had been out at the coast working with a logging operation. I went out around 6 p.m. to start doing chores.

I started getting the feed ready and figured that Max the bull and his hungry tummy (or 4 tummies:) would make his way to the barn. When he didn't come I went out there to shake some feed at him. He still didn't come. The only thing on his mind was the 'ladies' (Ingrid and Kierstin) and how he was going to get with them.

I should back up a step. Max and the heifers cannot be in the same pen because, well we all know what happens. They both also have the same daddy (not a good thing for registered cattle to do) and the heifers are still too young to be bred. However Max loves the heifers, and Sydney the horse loves Max the bull. This means we had to get Max locked in his stall before Sydney would go in her stall, and then we could move the heifers up from their pasture to their stall. (Co-dependency not a healthy thing.)

I called my friend to ask what the trick was to getting Max to come up and eat. Her and her mom are only like 5'2 so I thought, "Surely I can do this if they can."

Her advice, take a show stick out there and hit him on the head and get behind him and push him up to the barn. "He thinks he is tough, but he really isn't," were her parting words.

I entered the pasture with all the confidence in the world and my show stick. As I approach Max in the middle of the pasture close to NO fences (aka escape routes) he looks at me. I proceed towards him and for maybe a split second have a regret. I begin the process of hitting him on the head and trying to get behind him. His response dropping his head and proceeding to try to charge me. This escalated for probably 30 seconds and I was getting REALLY scared. The thougth occured to me as the horse graciously ate grass and watched near by, "What a great place for Justin to find me when he gets home, dead in the pasture." (sarcasm)

Finally, something scared him and he took off in the other direction and I quickly sprinted to the closest gate. I then called my friend back and she said he was fine in the pasture and just let him come up when he is ready to. (she also chuckled at me a little bit)

Max didn't come in until 8:30 a.m. the next morning to eat. Which meant neither did the horse and neither did the heifers. Thanks Max, your a butt.

From that point forward for the next 11 days or so remaining, Max was a challenge. Actually he even progressively got worse in his behavior. Everyone who works with cattle says that bulls like to test the limits. I don't know what to do correct them when they outweigh me by 1,500 lbs?

When our friends returned I asked the wife if she had any problems with him. She laughed and said, "Well, he threw his head at Brad in the stall the first night we were back, so he hit him on the head with a shovel. No more problems after that."

Why didn't anybody tell me all it took was a shovel?

Sydney the horse also experienced an abscess in her back right hoof, which meant a few different visits from the horse vet. (She was a huge help!)Syd had a great personality though and was the most consistent with her behavior of all of the large animals.

The dandruff cat was rather fat and my theory is she was depresesd. She laid around in her cat bed all day long except for when we were on the deck to pet her. I mostly only touched her when I had my gloves on.

As for the heifers, they were pretty good, except for one time, one did try to charge me. Still not sure about that one.

It was a great experience, I learned alot and I would probably even maybe do it again.

P.S. For all those of you who haven't been around cattle alot, it is ok to hit them on the head with large things. They have very hard heads and it doesn't hurt them.
Justin and Ruth Blazzard