We’ve had ourselves an afternoon of kittens and cows! :-D

My daughter and I had to head into town this afternoon, but as we left the house, we got distracted by a Doom Guy.

Who is starting to get used to this whole “being held” thing, and enjoying head scritches.  Oh, was he purring up a storm!

The girls had gone out to see the kittens this morning, too, and he allowed himself to be picked up.  It has been quite chilly, so I think he is appreciating the body heat that comes from being held by a human! :-D

I think this is having an effect on the other kittens, too.  They’re starting to come closer, even if they don’t let us come near them.  Though they also seem to be begging for treats, too.  More on that, later! :-D

When we got back from town and pulled up to the gate, we found cows!  Just a few of them in the outer yard, while others were in the old hay yard.  There was no surge of the entire herd coming in like last time.

The vehicle and people gates to the yard were open, as was the garage door, when we left.  !!

Thankfully, no cows were in the garage.  While I closed the vehicle gate to the inner yard, my daughter got her stuff from the van and closed up the garage.  Then I went to check the electric wire gate by the barn, because I could see that the insulated wire holders were still upright.  I found the wire broken and dragged into the outer yard, so I paused to move it aside, so no cows would get tangled in it. As I did that, one of the cows came walking past me, through the gate.

This immediately concerned me, because she was limping very heavily on a front leg.  I followed her a bit and managed to get a picture of her looking back at me on her right.  This allowed me to zoom in on the photo and read the number on her ear tag.

I then went in (making sure the people gate was closed up) and phoned up the renter to let him know his cows had come through again.  We both think the recent rains (another thunderstorm came through last night) has been causing problems with his electric fence.  I let him know the tag number on the injured cow, though with how heavily she was limping, she would be hard to miss.

After I called him, I went to walk around the yard, just in case a cow got in and no one noticed.  We do have a couple of gaps in the fence by the old log building that a determined cow could get through, even if the gates were closed.

Walking around was much more challenging than expected!  Butterscotch came over and kept winding herself around my legs as I walked.  As much as I tried to avoid it, I still ended up kicking her in the head, at least twice.  Do you think that stopped her?  Not a chance!

Beep Beep and several kittens followed along, too!

They were most definitely begging for treats. :-D

Even the shy kittens were following me along.

Rosencrantz, or Gildenstern, came along, then the bigger orange tabby came running, too. :-D

Even pausing to take the photo was an unexpected challenge. :-D

Butterscotch may not like being picked up, but she was certainly willing to try climbing my leg!

About an hour later, I could hear an engine, letting me know the renter was here, so I went out again.  The cows were nice and co-operative about getting back to the barn side of the fence.  We stopped to talk for a bit, and it now looks like I’ll be buying a round bale of straw from him. :-D  I had made arrangements to get 6 small square straw bales delivered a few days ago from someone else.  I only need enough to cover the top of the septic tank, then plan to layer the rest on the smaller garden by the Old Kitchen.  Unfortunately, the person never showed up, and hasn’t been answering my messages, so I don’t know what’s going on.  I asked if he could recommend someone I could buy from, and after asking what I needed, he said he could sell me one.  A round bale will have much more straw than we need, but it won’t go to waste, that’s for sure.  When things dry up later, he’ll deliver one into our yard for us.  Unlike smaller straw bales, there’s no way we’d be able to get it into the yard ourselves!

I also let him know how much we are enjoying his cows, and made sure to let him know we didn’t mind them getting through the gate.  My only concern is that, with all the stuff around, they’ll get hurt.  Which I’m hoping is not what happened to the limping cow.  It could just be a rock in her hoof, but until he gets a look, there’s no way to know.  There was visible sign of an injury other than her limping.  We did joke about how curious they are, and get into everything.  Do they ever!  They are so interested in the cats, too.

A unexpected bonus with the cows breaking through the fence.  I’m getting to know the renter more, and he’s a really nice guy. :-)

The Re-Farmer