Sad....

I was getting on such a roll, blogging. Then I had a really unhappy incident last week, and it kinda put me on the skids. One of my milk cows, Shelly, a beautiful, young brown swiss girl, passed away after being down for nearly a month to the day last Sat. I'm still having a tough time processing it and typing it. The whole saga can be found at the Keeping a Family Cow boards . I'm not sure I feel like typing it out right now. Basically, I went out Christmas morning to milk, nice and early. Shelly was down, and couldn't get up. Even after a roller coaster month, which I may not have survived without the support of all the wonderful people on the KFC boards, when we tried so many things, and when I truly thought she would recover-we lost her.

To most people, who don't happen to spend a good deal of time with their heads pressed against a cow's flank, it probably doesn't seem like that much of a loss. But spending that much time with an animal, especially a beautiful, kind animal, who's milk nourishes your family, you get very close to them-probably closer than many people are with their dogs. And her loss hurts every bit as much as when I had to make that horrible decision last September and take Sabu, our German Shepherd girl, Leroy's and my first "baby" in to be put down. I'm still crying as I type this post (and this isn't something I'd readily share-but it tells you how deep this hurts).

Shelly was a sweet lovely cow, who loved all "her" calves, and was an awesome nurse cow, as well as a super milk cow. She wanted to be in movies one day, I'm sure, due to her affinity for the camera-I swear that cow understood english, and you'd just have to mention the camera and she'd be right there, posing. Not to mention if you brought it out! Then she'd call all her foster calves over, convinced they should be in the shot too!!

Anyways, I miss her dearly. I know stuff happens when you're dealing with livestock. But, even when you know this stuff happens, it's hard when they leave such an impact on you.

Rest in peace, Shelly.