What Ruby wants for Christmas

For Christmas, I though Ruby would be at her new home in North Carolina.  We've hit a small glitch which in turn shined a spotlight on all the little details that we hadn't talked through with the still-interested buyer.

So now, with her new ear tag and traveling papers, she may be going to a new home (hopefully not wrapped under any Christmas tree like a new puppy) or she may be wishing for more Mom-and-Me time with Bessie.  

Which brings us to her second wish for Christmas:  getting her nose pierced.

Charming (the foster calf we brought home in May) is going to his new home this weekend.  That part is on schedule.

Ruby was supposed to be sold by now before cold weather set in.  She's still out back, mildly upset that she can't be in with her mama.  Moving Ruby far away from her mama (across the country, if it still works out) would solve that problem nicely.

Bessie and new calf were supposed to be the only two cows on the property at this point, which would have made things so much easier, given the limited set-up we have back there and the limited space we have where we can logistically keep the cows.

We're re-evaluating the situation in a different way than we expected, and changing plans.  We really shouldn't have two adult cows here.  I don't think we're breaking any laws, being out in unincorporated McHenry county with a barn and a pasture and surrounded by farm fields, but still.....no need to give any reason for neighbors to complain or voice any concerns that our small slice of farm land is not large enough for the number of animals we are housing.  

There is no question that they are well cared for, or that the manure piles are managed (meaning, the whole place is not taken over by manure JUST yet!), or that the cows are healthy and watered and fed and have fresh dry bedding.  The only thing that might cause anyone to suspect the slightest neglect is that Bessie needs her hooves trimmed.  But yet, the responsible thing to do is to have one adult cow raising one calf, and no more than that, because when it comes to cows, a one-acre pasture isn't really enough land for more than one adult, with the baby as a side-kick.  

Ruby, as a now-adult and pregnant heifer, tips the balance towards one too many.

  

Alone in the pasture after Prince Charming goes to his new castle in Marengo, Miss Ruby will let us know that she doesn't like being separated from mama.

She leans way over the dividing wall between cow shelter and Bessie's water tank, trying to lap up the water.  She has her own tank of water from the very same well that Bessie's water comes from.   She just chooses to try for Bessie's water instead!  Maybe the goldfish living in that trough make it taste better?  Or maybe that's the nostalgic taste of water from her growing-up years, and she longs for that fishy after-taste.....  :)

She moos forlornly when Bessie gets fresh hay in the hay ring, and Ruby wishes, wishes, wishes that she could engage in pushing and shoving to get the choicest bits in the unreachable hay-ring.

I let all 4 cows bed down together when it was below zero, for two nights in a row last week.  Miss Ruby and Charming both realize now that it is SO much more cozy when the herd is not separated by 4 tiny strands of electric wire.  Charming even risked being zapped, and slurped up all of Bessie's milk this morning before I could even get out there with the buckets.

The new plan, unless the sale goes through before the end of the month, involves piercing Ruby's nose.  I hate the very idea.  

Here's the reason we would need to even consider such a thing:  

Ruby and Bessie have an understanding.  Nursing is a social thing between mother and daughter at this point.  When they are standing next to each other, it's as natural as a conversation with a friend.  They touch noses, or groom each other, and sooner or later Ruby is drinking her mother's milk, as if this should go on for the rest of their lives.  It shouldn't.  Ruby needs to grow up.  

She just knows that when she's with her mama, milkshakes are part of the equation.

Any teenage/young adult girl would LOVE to have their nose pierced, don't you think?  It could be quite the statement, a big metal spiky ring attached firmly in her nose.  Even better with a growing belly to show the true epitome of "rebel" fashion.....

If Ruby doesn't sell, we'll need to purchase the nose-ring, have the vet pierce it through her nose, and that will ensure that she will be kicked away by her mother each and every time that she tries to nose Bessie's tender under-regions in an attempt to steal some milk.  Bessie's thoughts might go something like this:  "You think you can drink my milk when you're stabbing me?  No way, girlie! Take that ring out of your nose and THEN you can have your milkshake!"  (accompanied by a hefty kick which will damage Ruby's pride but nothing else.)

Ruby will actually be happier than she is now, once she gets used to the bold new fashion statement attached to her nose.  She has "bling" in her ear now (the ID tag), why not add "bling" to her nose?  In my mind, it will spoil her dainty, beautiful features.  In her mind, she may toss her head proudly and strut around a bit more.......

She'll be back with her mother, socializing with her new half-brother, being part of the "herd" once again, eating Bessie's food that is inaccessible to her now, drinking the gold-fish water in Bessie's water tank, spending nights next to Bessie in the comfort of the straw bedding.....warm and cozy and much, much quieter.

Then we'll have to decide how long we can afford to keep her, and try to sell her at a later date. 

The logistics of keeping Ruby until her calf is born in mid-May aren't what I wanted to deal with, but.....that's the situation we need to work with at the moment, it seems.  She might sell better if she's a first-time mama with a successful delivery under her Dutch belt (pun intended) and getting accustomed to a successful milking relationship as a family milk cow.  We might even be able to sell her with her calf already born, or keep her calf to nurse off of Bessie. 

 

Lots of potential scenarios.  The best one still is, of course, if Ruby would be bought now and have time to settle in at a new place where she can get some more individual attention than I'm able to give her this winter.  And where she can avoid having her nose pierced through for the ever-so-fashionable nose ring that is on every heifer's Christmas list.

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/