Mad dash from a mad cow!

Snowflake last fall, shortly after we got her.

I tell you, it is NEVER boring around this Hillbilly Farm!  Course it's not usually as "fun" as it was this morning either.  LOL

One of our SIL's came down yesterday and spent the night, she has been helping us get ready to move from time to time.  This morning she got a little more than she bargained for.  *giggle*  Thankfully she was a good sport about it all.

DH came in from milking and told us that Snowflake had a piece of metal in her eye, he called the vet, but the vet just told him it should be fine if he pulled it out, so we didn't have to try and load her in a trailer and get her into town...especially on a Sunday.

That was sure a good thing, cause as much trouble as we had getting her into the barn, I wouldn't have wanted to try and get her into the narrow little trailer we have.

This cow is one we bought last fall, and one who hasn't been worked with...one who is most likely going to find a new home, cause we don't have the know how to teach her at this late date, to come in and get milked.  She should be having a calf about any time...we think, however we haven't taken her in to be checked, cause the thought of trying to get her in that narrow little trailer was just to much for us.

This morning, she was chased round and round the pasture beside the barn, by the Hillbilly, his wife, and his SIL, just trying to get her to go into the barn.  She was dodging this way and that, avoiding going down the lane DH had put up beside the barn, hoping to coral her into the door.  We finally decided to try sending her into the back door of the barn, cause she is used to going in there to sleep, and down the hall between the goat stalls, and that worked...till she saw she was getting cornered, then went crashing through the nearest door and back out to freedom.

We then blocked the door, and while DH and SIL was messing around finishing up in the barn, I stepped out to see where she went, and saw that EVERYONE...all FIVE ...was in the back room of the barn, so I stood in the door so she couldn't leave again, and yelled saying she was back in the barn.

SIL came around, to help me, if needed, and DH went and opened the gate back up, so all the cows could file through the barn...and he shoved them out the door, one by one.  Luckily Snowflake was the last one, and he slammed the door shut, before she could get out of it.

Then the REAL "fun" began.  We got her cornered in the milk room, but just couldn't get her to go into the stanchion, so DH wrapped the rope that he had got around her neck, around the stanchion several times, and I held it, as he tried to pull out the metal rod with his plyers...she really started bucking and thrashing then, and his plyers flew out of his hands.  The rod didn't budge, it was in there TIGHT...we have no idea HOW she managed to get it in her eye, or where she found it for that matter!

By this time, I'm just about ready to run screaming from the barn, cause I'm standing beside a MAD cow, and even if she is one of our smallest ones, she weighs more than I care to get crushed by...remember...as much as I love our cows (from a safe distance) I'm not as fond of them, when they are pushing up against me as they try to get away from the rope around their neck.

DH grabs the rope, and tells me to get out of the way, then his phone rings...*sigh*

She is still trying to get away, he is trying to talk to someone on the phone, who is coming to look at a folding boat we had for sale, and our SIL and I are standing in the milk-room doorway praying.

All of a sudden Snowflake is gasping and falls to the floor of the milk room.  I thought she was choking with the rope around her neck, but hubby thinks she just scared to death, cause he loosened the rope a little but it wasn't tight enough to be choking her.

He gets off the phone, grabs his pliers, reaches down and yanks out the rod, while she is still on the floor.  I expected her to leap up as it happened, but she didn't as fast as I thought she would.  All of a sudden DH yells for us to get out of the barn, so I turned as our SIL ducked in between the freezers and opened the door we had shut between two rooms...and started running across the next room...saw the door to outside was locked, so changed direction to open it, cause if I didn't she would be following us down the hall between the stalls in the other part of the barn...which I didn't want to have happen.

I managed to fling the door open, and burst out of it, running down the path beside the barn with our SIL on my heals.  I heard DH yell to RUN, in the middle of all this, so figured she had broken away from him, and was on the loose, so I decided I should get out of the path, so she had room to go around me two ways, and I was just about out of the wider part of the path so thought I'd better stop, so slid over behind a t-post.  Yes, I know it's silly, and I didn't REALLY do it to "hide" behind it...it just looked that way.  LOL

My SIL ducked in behind me, and we watched Snowflake tear out of the barn door with the rope still around her neck, up the cliff beside the barn and away from the horrible humans.  We are both standing there behind that post when DH came out of the barn door.

Once we got over our fright, and the long chase, we had to laugh about that "hiding" behind the post as if that was going to protect us, even though  that's not exactly what I was doing.

I'm just praying that she will be ok, and not get an infection from having this metal rod (with a loop on the end...and the loop was what was around her eye ball) wrapped around her eye.  I'm also hoping her baby is ok, cause it was a majorly traumatic morning for her...poor thing.

It certainly made for an interesting morning.  I don't think I'm still over the trauma myself, although thankfully I didn't have time to shake in my boots, while I was trying to hold a bucking cow.  It's something we will remember for a while I'm sure, and thankfully laugh about since I had to "hide" behind a t-post.  LOL

If you want to read a better version of events...or see the metal rod that was in her eye, you can go visit my hubby's blog and read his post about our adventure here.

After this morning...I'm kinda hoping for a little boredom...how about you?  *giggle*