Due to lots of time spent haying and just being busy, I didn't pay attention like I should have...
they found some Nightshade (deadly poison) and some of them nibbled it.
As a result I have over the last two days:
one dead heifer,
two very sick heifers
two slightly sick steers.
One little heifer has responded to treatment. I took her all the way back to ground zero (fed her colostrum) and she has rebounded.
The two steers seem fine with being allowed to run free and eat whatever they want. That leaves just one little heifer....
she is losing ground each day on her own so today in addition to colostrum, she got a shot of antibiotic and an IV of glucose along with a bolus of vitamins.
SO at the end of a very long day which included losing our power in a storm, I got to stand in a damp grassy field using the lights from the truck
to hold a bottle of glucose hoisted over my head while it infused into my little patient
looking up at the stars on a very dark night
and started reciting as much of the words engraved on the Statue of Liberty as I could remember
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...hmmm...
the IV bottle gurgled while I tried to remember...
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility? no, that is the Preamble to the Constitution -
I didn't watch School House Rock for nothing!
I ran through a few other nuggets from old history classes
"Two if by land and one if by sea? no....
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?" no,
being the statue of Liberty isn't very easy...
my nose was itching and the blood had drained out of my arm...
that's it! something about her arm!...
She lifts her lamp by the golden shore....or door..or something like that.
The last of the life giving fluid gurgled down the tube and I gratefully lowered my lady liberty arm, climbed over the fence and came home.
I had to Google it....
Its all coming back to me now!
On the pedestal below her, it says,
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of you teaming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
This poem is called the New Colossus and it was written by Emma Lazarus.
So sorry about the cattle. So terrible. I don't know about nightshade. Will be googling right after this.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of your post is hilarious.
T
I'm sorry for the heifers. The steers can handle themselves.
ReplyDeleteI like your spirit though. I started laughing when I got here " She lifts her lamp by the golden shore....or door..or something like that."
That's why you were absent for the last couple of days. Wish they little ones get better.
I love your sence of humor in the face of disaster. Your mind is always at work and that is admirable too. You really give your heart to your farm. The people and animals on it are very lucky to have you there.
ReplyDelete