Whoever said catching a greased pig was hard never tried catching a cow...

What does a big dumb dog, a busted fence, a sunburn and a cow have in common? I'll tell ya. Today started out with a bang. I woke up to a screaming set of babies. Nothing unusual about that at all. It happens every morning like clockwork at the same time every single day. I walked past the bedroom window, just as I do every morning, on my way to heat up some bottles and I saw something much different than the usual pastoral scene in my front pasture. Nothing. I saw nothing. Nothing is quite unusual. Normally there's birds or grazing sheep or SOMETHING in my pasture. This morning...not a thing except for a panting, very out of breath old, dumb St. Bernard who broke into the pasture overnight. I panicked. He isn't supposed to be back there. I had visions of mauled sheep and injured cow. So there I am, half asleep, half dressed, hair all skiwompy running outside to find out HOW this big, dumb dog managed to get into the pasture. What I found was a soggy mess from the irrigation being left on all night, 2 soaked, panicked dogs, 3 out-of-sorts sheep and...NO COW. I then panicked. Where did she go? I checked the barn - no cow. I checked everywhere in the front pasture - no cow. Then I go into the back pasture...

The fencing for the back pasture was completely mangled. I could see the scene in my head of how the entire situation this morning had panned out, and how our poor cow, Honey, had, in a panic, repeatedly tried to bust through the fence to escape her new canine friend. In 3 places the fence has 'cow' indentations on it, and in one spot the field fencing AND electrical line was completely broken. I guess 500 lbs of panicked bovine being nipped at by a dumb, old dog can do that to a fence. No amount of fencing could have kept her in at that point.

We spent the entire morning and afternoon trying to catch her. My poor husband at one point did get close enough to put a rope around her neck...then she drug him through a patch of brambles and thistles, and followed it up with him getting stuck in a mucky swampy puddle up to his knees. Sounds like fun, huh?  *Mental note - we need to halter train her FAST* By time we realized we needed help all 3 of us (my dad was helping) were fly bitten, sunburned and itching from grass allergies. Fortunately, our neighbor has cows and had the time to help us later in the afternoon. It took all of 20 minutes to catch her with him helping...boy, did we feel like greenhorns. We learned the hard way that you don't chase a cow. You have to act like you're not trying to catch a cow to catch a cow. Who knew? By the time we wrangled her back into our property, the poor thing was dehydrated and sick from her jaunt with the boys next door. She isn't exactly tough stuff. Her reward was being locked in her stall with a big pile of alfalfa, some electrolytes, water and grain. She's a happy camper now, but I think the whole thing today kinda traumatized her a bit. She's not too keen on leaving the barn AT ALL now. She'll come outside for maybe 10 minutes, then book it back to her stall.

This is what I learned today:


1) Cows are hard impossible to catch if they don't want to be caught.

2) Dogs and thunderstorms don't mix. Ever. We had a freak thunderstorm this morning that sent them reeling. 400 lbs of dog and a flimsy gate don't really go together...soooo, we're gonna get them penned up too. It's for their protection. Hoof in face isn't a good look for a dog...

3) Whoever said a greased pig was hard to catch, obviously never tried to catch a 500 lbs heifer on the run.

4) I hate grass.