wild cows [part 2]

And it was sight to see! That stunningly beautiful dun-colored cow was running across the neighbor's green wheatfield. The colors were truly magnificent. Oh! Wait a minute!! Those are the cows we just purchased!! Why are they out? Where are they going?? "They're out! They're out!! They're out!!!" I yelled. And I kept yelling and yelling, getting louder each time. Eric ran to the back door and do you know what he said? "They're out!"

Not only did they bust through five strands of barb wire fence, they took three of our herd with them. We tracked them for two miles and then lost all sign of the wild pair. But, because our herd knows us, we were able to walk them back home quite easily.

Desiring to be good citizens and maintain heathy neighborly relations, we reported the run-aways to three different counties: Harvey, Butler, Marion. Since we live so close to BU and MN counties, we thought it wise. Who knows how far that pair will run?

From time to time, Eric would take the tractor out searching for tracks and we would check with all three counties for reports of sightings. All to no avail. There was nothing else we could do.

Several months passed and then a neighbor stopped by asking if we had a couple of cows missing. "Well, yes." Eric stated. "But they've been gone for months. We've given up on finding them." This farmer proceeded to tell us that he found a cow/calf pair in his herd, but they were not his animals. He made his rounds to every neighbor with cows, but no one claimed them. Then he remembered we had "those small cows" and that maybe they belonged to us. How could we know unless we saw them? (He didn't bring pictures with him.)

Being home all day has it's advantages, but not when it means that I [Paula] am the one and only to accomplish certain tasks. This was one such task. Not sure what I'd find, I set out the for the neighbor's pasture. Now, keep in mind that this pasture is roughly 1/4 of a section with two very tricky landscape features. The first is in the NW corner. Limbs from the hedge grove make it nearly impossible to walk upright at times. The second pretty much cuts the pasture in half: a deep ravine. Knowing the cows would take shelter in the trees, it's pretty much useless to take a vehicle in there. One just has to suck it up and walk the entire piece of land.

All is well and I'm figuring out how to manuver through the limbs and across the ravine. The herd is spread between the open areas and the trees. Walking slowly, I'd really like to avoid a stampede, if possible. And I'd really like to avoid triggering the bull into combat. So far, so good.

Thankfully the neighbor's herd is very gentle and I was able to search for the wild pair with little trouble. It took a while, but I finally sighted them. For some reason, humans scare the tar out of wild animals and this wild pair displayed that characteristic quite well. The very instant they got wind of me they started running.

At this point, my job is done. They've been spotted and there's nothing I can do about it. But how do we get them out of this pasture?

Stay tuned for Part 3 next week.