Author Allie Bock: Saving Lola

Hi Dear Reader,

How are you doing? Have you been reading anything great?

This week has been uneventful at work. It was cold and I think everyone hunkered down to get through the cold snap. It finally warmed up this weekend enough that we took the Little Bocks to go see our horses. They spent hours brushing and riding them.

I did want to share a story that happened this time of year. Several years ago, Hubby and I were living and working in central Missouri. The part of Missouri we lived in was cattle country, mainly cow/calf operations. That is where ranchers/farmers had momma cows that lived out in green pastures. They had calves either in the spring or the fall. The calves and cows lived together until the calves were weaned. It was very picturesque.

The calves were "pre-conditioned" before being weaned. That means that they were vaccinated, dewormed, tested for certain diseases, and castrated. At that time, Missouri had a program to increase the health of the calves and thus increase their value to the feedlots and stockyards. Most of my clients had black Angus, which is my favorite and the best breed of beef cow. 😉

Anyway, one day in February it was sleeting and cold for Missouri, one of my friends called and said that he found a half-frozen calf that was abandoned by the first-time momma cow. He said, "if you can save it, you can have it." I tend to be a sucker for baby calves and enjoy a challenge. We already had a nice little herd going and if this calf lived she would be a great addition. Our friend had very nice cows. So we met him at the Casey's gas station. The little calf was wrapped in a blanket laying at the foot of the passenger side of his truck.

We took her home and put her in our bathtub with hot water bottles, warm towels from the dryer, and turned on the propane heater. The bathroom got so warm. She was so weak that she did not have a suckle response and could not take a bottle of colostrum (the first milk full of antibodies and other important good things). We ended up tubing her colostrum for 3-4 days before she had the strength to stand and nurse from a bottle.

Hubby and I went out to lunch one day. We discussed when we were going to put our new calf in the barn. He was ready to move her out, but I was hesitant because she wasn't as perky as I wanted her to be. All of that was for naught, though. We got home from our lunch date to find water seeping from under the bathroom door. We opened the door up. The floor was flooded with water and the calf was standing in the middle of the mess looking at us with her ears forward like, "it's about time you got home." Somehow, she had turned on the faucet for the tub.

After that we moved her outside to a horse stall. She grew up to be a beautiful cow. Here she is with her first calf. The calf is half Bucking Bull and half Angus.