Farewell Charlie

Since May of this year we have been bottle feeding this little abandoned calf!  Dick phoned us and asked if we thought we might want to keep him at the farm to feed since he was never actually claimed by a mother cow.  We aren't sure if he is a twin or if his mom just didn't feel like taking care of him.  He happened to be born in a storm, which really didn't help his situation.  Anyway, we took him in and Emry just loved him.  When he was still slightly small we would let him out of his pen and he would follow us all around the farm.  He eventually got too big to do this because when he would nudge us for some milk he would usually knock us over.  One morning Emry and I went out to feed him and let the dogs out of their kennel but before we got to his pen we heard this charging, stampede like sound coming toward us.  I turned around just in time to see Charlie running full force right at us.  Thank goodness we had his bottle with us or we would have been pancakes for sure at the speed he was going!  Another time when we were having dinner we could hear Charlie mooing, and it sounded like it was just a little too close to the house.  We looked out the window and saw Charlie in the backyard wanting desperately for us to come out.  So Emry did just that, against what we told her would probably happen!  Well, the next thing we hear is Emry screaming, Jared runs out to see what has happened and finds Emry up on the swing trying to get as high as she can because Charlie is trying his hardest to nudge some milk out of her!  Jared rescues Emry and once in the house tells her not to open the front door because Charlie followed them up onto the deck!  He said after dinner he would make up a bottle and take it out to Charlie.  Well, Emry being a little determined and curious opened the front door and in comes Charlie, charging his way right into the dinning room!  He plowed Calum over in the process and probably wouldn't have backed down if Jared hadn't spotted a water bottle near the front door!  Charlie mistook it for his bottle and instantly followed Jared out the door!

Since we are going to be weaning the rest of the calves from their moms at the beginning of December we thought we had better start cutting Charlie back a bit too.  Jared has been giving him hay, which he absolutely loved and we would give him a bottle every other day.  He really seemed to be thriving and was getting so big, maybe even a little too chubby!  On Monday when Jared gave Charlie some hay he came running over as usual and was barely interested in the bottle Jared had for him.  On Tuesday when Jared went to give him a warm bottle because it has been so cold he found Charlie behind his little shelter barley alive, and in no way interested in his bottle.  He ears were frozen and one of his back legs. Jared came in the house to read his cattle manual to see what he could do for him.  Taking too long to find anything he called Buck instead and he came right over with some electrolyte.  They had to use the front end loader to get him into the heated shop and get him warmed up, he is now at least 300 pounds, if not bigger.  He was barely responsive, but they were able to get some electrolyte into him.  I came out not long after to see how things were going and we decided then to try and warm him up.  Jared found the heat gun and I started to rub him down with a towel.  He started to perk up a little, he would move his legs and blink his eyes, only he would cry out like he was in some kind of pain.  We started to gain a little hope when he started to respond to our touch.  We probably did this for 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes.  And then he just went still and his eyes went glassy.

The most frustrating thing is we aren't even sure what happened to him.  Buck thinks he must have gotten a bug of some kind for it to happen so fast.  His tummy was hard but Buck said if he was bloated we would have noticed him acting sluggish for a few days.  It is hard when you loose any animal, but Charlie was the first of our cows to come to the farm, it was a lot of fun having him around and a great experience for Emry.  Even Calum loved him, he could actually say his name, "Chaaarwie!"  Whenever he heard him moo, Calum would say "Hi Chaarwie!" and then put his hands to his mouth and moo.  When I told Emry this morning that Charlie died last night, she was sad, but said so innocently, "Now Grandpa Dick can take care of him, he loves cows!"  What a sweetheart!  Charlie will be missed, I am not looking forward to the losses we will most definitely experience having cows here.  I know it affects Jared much more than me, he is so tenderhearted.  When we go look at the cows in the field he says how hard it will be for him to sell any of them, he considers them all pets!