Changing of the guard

On Tuesday, April 1, I took in an orphan Angus heifer calf. She was born on Friday, March 28th and her mom would have nothing to do with her. The owner of the cow put her in a chute and milked her to get that essential colostrum but had no place or time to keep a bottle calf. She is just too cute but more importanly, she is fat and sassy. They had kept here in a blocked off area of the garage and so when she came home with me, it was her first outing into the outside world and room to run. She quickly discovered her legs and how to run with the occassional jump and buck for joy. Calves, kids, lambs, it is Spring and great to be alive.

On a much sadder note, I had to say good-bye to Angel, a german shepherd I adopted from a rescue 4 years ago. She was always beautiful but in the last 10 days her weight had dropped horribly and yesterday I heard her crying. She has always had either a hip problem or a disc problem. Her passion in life was to fetch sticks and she would go as far as carrying big pieces of firewood around to get you to notice her. She just wanted you to throw a stick all day long. When she would have a lot of exercise, she would become sore and act as if there were some sort of sharp pain that I associated with maybe a disc problem that got inflamed from too much exercise. I assumed that was the case or I should say that I hoped that was the case. I gave her some aspirin, a special helping of supper, and a promise to do what was right if not better. This morning she told me it was time. She was definitely miserable so I helped her into the truck for that last ride that rips your heart out while intellectually knowing you are doing the absolute right thing. She left peacefully with me holding her head and speaking softly to her. She and a great stick now rest on the knoll behind the house where the sheep like to rest. I will miss her dearly but know she is now free to chase sticks to her hearts content with her name sakes, the angels.