Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Good-bye, Jack. Hello, Stew.

We said good-bye to Jack last week. 


Originally we had brought him home to be a help and a playmate for our border collie, Fynn.  They played and wrestled constantly; except when Fynn was thieving Jack's bone and taunting him with it.  Jack was bigger but Fynn was much quicker.


They had became good friends and poor Fynn spent the first two days after Jack was gone lying on Jack's bed in the basement.  He wouldn't even lift his head when we called to him.

Jack was a good dog. He was such a goof.  He loved to play with anything he could get hold of.

 
But as he grew bigger he began roaming further and further from home.  We thought he was just hunting in the fields surrounding our home when actually he was visiting the neighbor's yard and even running in the road.  The neighbor was NOT happy and let us know about it.

We got an underground wire fence and a small receiver collar and we enclosed a couple of acres.  That collar was not strong enough to contain him so we bought a larger, stronger collar.  That held him in our yard for a few weeks but it created other problems because now we had a large, bored puppy. 


 
Jack began chewing everything; front door rugs, siding, trash can lids, sticks, etc.  He would pull logs off the wood pile and drag them up to the front door of the house to chew them.  He also began to dig holes in the yard.  But, worse, every time we rode the horses around the yard or in the nearby fields, he would stand behind his wire and bark and bark and bark constantly.

A couple of weeks ago we had a bad scare when Jack broke off his cable, ran across the wire fence boundary and chased DD's pony while we were out riding.  The pony, who had been behaving badly already, bolted straight for the road.  DD was clinging to his back but had lost both her stirrups and was completely out of control.  Thankfully Rio turned before the road but he galloped back up the lane toward the barn.

DH heard me yelling at the dog, ran out of the barn, jumped in front of the pony, threw his hands in the air and yelled, "Whoa."  Rio took a hard left turn into Calico's pen.  DD fell off and whacked her head on the driveway.  Of course she was wearing a helmet but when we examined it later it had cracked.  (We threw it away and got DD a new one.)  She lay on the driveway for a long time and then seemed quiet and slightly dazed for the rest of the evening.  She had blood on her lip and still has bruises on her back from the mishap but thankfully she has no lasting injuries.

We decided that was the last straw for Jack. 

We were able to find him a good family.  They have no horses, or grumpy neighbors, and they just love him.   

Fynn seemed depressed the first couple of days but quickly realized that no Jack means more attention for him.  He's back to being his usual happy self.

Shortly after Jack left, Stew arrived.


Technically he has no name, because he is destined for the freezer, but DD named him Stew. 

We bought him to help us use up all the extra milk Lily, our milk cow, produces.  We were hoping she would allow him to nurse directly but she would have none of that. 

So, three times a day, we warm milk on the stove and fill the biggest baby bottle you've ever seen.
 
And feed him ourselves.

 
Dairy bull calves have a shockingly high death rate but so far little Stew seems to be thriving.  And, as a bonus, he's drinking six pints of milk per day. 

2 comments:

  1. Dear Mary Beth,

    I was looking online for a photo of a collie with a calf and I think I came across a photo of this dog Fynn with a brown calf, both curled up sleeping together. If that is your photo, would you kindly email me so I can give more details? I work for a farm sanctuary and this picture might be great for a page in our brochure. We would credit the photo with your name or whoever took it. Please let me know!

    many thanks,

    Ashley

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    Replies
    1. Hi Ashley,
      I don't have your email address but thought you could include it in a reply comment that I can see but will not publish. That way we can email directly.
      Mary Beth

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