Brisket lost her calf yesterday morning. No idea what happened, but, these things do happen. Especially with heifers.

With the prices I’ve been hearing about for bottle calves this year I had no intention of getting her a new calf. It was just left to decide if she was going to be run open for a year or sold.

But, I couldn’t resist looking around. Seeing if there was something out there. It happens sometimes. I checked with the lady I often have bought calves from in the past. The one Brisket came from actually. She didn’t have anything. I checked the facebook bottle calf pages. They seem to be gone. It is only surprising that it took this long for facebook to get rid of them. This no animal sales rule is stupid and obnoxious.

Then I checked a local sale barn. They had just made a post saying a calf would be selling. So I called and asked to be called when she went through.

When the call came I was in Walmart. Standing there in a random aisle I bought a calf over the phone sight unseen. The guy on the other end said she was healthy. A twin born yesterday. And she was small. Wow was she small. Possibly because of the size, maybe I just got lucky, she sold cheap.

When I finally got there, over an hour the other direction with a stop in the middle to put away groceries and get a vehicle to haul her in, wow was she small.

I carried her through the parking lot to the pickup and wasn’t winded. She weighs less than a bag of grain. Less than the 40 pound bags of dog food even. Surely she isn’t under 40 pounds?!

So tiny but so vigorous and determined. I love those tiny calves that jump up and are off running from the first. Brisket’s bag was hard and tight. I fought for the first stream of milk. Brisket did not kick my hand off. Then the calf went to it. And stayed to it. I was still sitting there supervising them in the chute a half hour later. Finally I pulled her off fearing she’d make herself sick eating too much.

Brisket wasn’t thrilled with the whole thing but didn’t fight much. She’s such a good quiet cow. Just sweet all the way around. Surprising for such a high strung cow.

Once the kids got home we turned the calf back in with Brisket. Brisket said no. She kicked her off and was not willing to let her nurse. Back into the chute it was. For another extended period. How can such a tiny calf drink SO MUCH?

Then we separated them again for the night.

Cows will not just let a calf nurse. They will let their calf who smells like them nurse. There are many different ways to adopt a calf onto a cow but the one I’ve always preferred was to let the calf nurse until they poop out the smell of that cow. Then the cow will smell it and think it’s their calf. That’s why we need to use the chute, to hold the cow still so the calf can nurse. We keep them separate then so the cow can’t smell the calf and know it’s not hers and so the calf doesn’t get hurt trying to nurse. Cows kick hard and don’t care if they hurt a baby.

I checked this morning early. The calf was sleeping happily in her little pen next to Brisket.

We went out to feed a couple hours later. The kids and I had been discussing how we would proceed. My daughter came back in to inform me that the calf was in the pen with Brisket and nursing happily.

She must have squeezed through or under the gate and taken matters into her own hands. And the adoption is done. Brisket was carefully checking on the calf as we hauled feed in to her. The calf finished nursing and toddled about hopping and playing for a few minutes before nestling down next to her new mama to sleep.

There is lots of sickness to be picked up in a sale barn and it is stressful for a calf to change homes like that. If we can keep her healthy and if Brisket keeps accepting her like this it might be a done deal.

My daughter has named the teeny tiny calf Fatty. Because she has a sense of humor.