Three Tales of Cows and Childhood

I was posting on a dog forum I belong to and was telling some childhood stories about cows. I realized how much a part of my life cows have been even though we have none now and my father quit dairy farming when I was 12 and burned the fences and rolled up the wire the next day after the cows left. I'm not kidding, he said he didn't want to be tempted to buy anymore cows. He had built a new barn in 1949 when he had two barns burn in one night from lightning, uninsured, he had to pay for the new one (and the equipment he lost) somehow and supposedly that's why my mother started teaching again and my dad started dairy farming. We had 33 Holsteins or so when I was growing up, Daddy also had a fairly large mechanic business and custom hayed and farmed on the side. Milking and taking care of the cows was NOT his favorite part of the day although he loved animals too, just not cows.
Anyway there are 3 stories I remember two fairly terrifying and one merely puzzling but they affected my childhood I suppose, I got over my fears almost but can still remember the terror from the first one, the fear and then anger from the second one and the puzzlement from the third one. Also I'm not afraid of cows, the fear was only from them one time. The picture above is me in 1993 I think with my pet Hereford. My husband and I had 40 calves, big mistake, took care of them for another guy and he ended up losing money supposedly so we took care of them and fed them for almost a year for free. I'm not particularly fond of cows either but I suppose we will get some more eventually. The only thing those calves were good for was jumping fences and wandering, some days they would wake me up @ my bedroom window wanting back in with their food. They weren't supposed to be in the yard, they were supposed to be in their pasture but I never could convince them of that.
Anyway for the real stories.
The worst one was when I was probably 4, we had been to Kansas to visit my brother, I think it was Garden City Kansas and they had a zoo and an elephant named Penny. I remember we stayed in a hotel for the first time in my life and it had wallpaper with pink flowers. I don't remember the trip home, just the lights of Kansas City MO. It was early morning when we got home to the Ozarks in Missouri, probably 2 or 3 am and evidently whoever was supposed to milk the cows hadn't done it or the cows just heard us drive up and decided it was time to be milked. Whatever the case I woke up in the dark, alone. Completely utterly alone. I couldn't find anyone in the house and it was dark. I think it was about 4 am. I'd had a dream evidently and I decided my mommy and daddy were dead and I was all alone in a dark house. I was pretty sure I was going to step in a dead body, a recurring fear and dream I still have. I did a couple tours of the house crying, I don't think I turned on the lights because I wasn't sure someone wasn't in there with me and if they were was pretty positive I didn't want to see them because that would just make everything worse. We had an intercom that went from the house to the shop and the barn and I decided to call someone on it. Don't ask me why I didn't get on the phone (a crank one if you can imagine, we live in the boondocks) but often there were people down @ the shop or the barn working even @ night, I guess that was my reasoning (I was like 4 give me a break). I got on the intercom and started screaming about how my mommy and daddy were dead and I was all alone and would someone please come get me because it was DARK. My mom and dad were down @ the barn and heard me over the milking machines after awhile and they did rush up there and tried to calm me and figure out what was going on. I can still remember the feel of the hardwood floors on my bare feet (it was summer) and my careful steps to avoid any bodies laying on the floor. It's a house of doors, you can go from room to room and make circles and I did. I still dream about it.
The second one was more humorous but I didn't see it that way. I was younger, it was maybe the winter before, or a year before the first story. I was a small child, I mean I didn't eat and didn't grow. I think I was actually classified as malnourished for awhile. It wasn't my parents fault, I just wasn't hungry. So there I was 3 or 4 years old, down @ the barn in the winter, with my little corduroy coat and rubber boots on and knitted cap. I think it was snowing and I went out to the barn lot to play in it. Somehow I got in the middle of the lot where the cows waited to be milked and where they were let out after milking and I saw the big barn door OPEN. They had all been milked and Daddy and Mom were letting them OUT. I wasn't afraid of them but 30+ cows coming @ a small 3 year old look very BIG and all of a sudden I was AFRAID. I was also stuck in the mud which was actually cow manure if the truth be told, up to the top of my tiny rubber boots. I screamed and I yelled and thought surely they would stop letting the cows out. Nope they stood there and laughed!! Then I got MAD, as angry as a 3 year old can get, I believe I considered running away for the first time then. How could they LAUGH when I was about to be trampled. Then I noticed the cows weren't running over me, remember these cows were probably older than I was and knew me and I was making quite a bit of noise to boot. They parted like the red sea around me. My mom and dad laughed, finally they came and picked me up. I didn't know any four letter words then but I'm sure if I had I would have used them. Now I'm sure child psychologists would have said that was a scarring incident and maybe it was but to my parents the sight of a VERY angry small 3 year old in the middle of a bunch of gentle milk cows was really rather funny. Or @ least I try to tell myself that.
The third incident was rather mundane. My mother and I had gone to town, I was maybe 6, maybe younger, we got home and there was a cow stuck in the yard. Like up to her udder stuck in the yard. It was amazing, and my mom was MAD. Our house sat probably 30 ft off the gravel driveway where all the farm and shop traffic went everyday. I'm sure they built the wire fence to keep the cows out of the garden and off the lawn. There were 3 small gates and two large ones for the tractor to come in for the garden or if we needed to haul something heavy to the back door, which was actually the only door we used of course. When I was toddling they reinforced the gates and the fence not to keep the cows out but to keep me in, the story is I could climb before I could walk and would escape anything like Houdini, they were also in their mid 40s with a toddler which was a BIG surprise and an escaping one to boot. I vaguely remember the frustration of not being able to climb the big wire gate and the smaller ones were reinforced high, like 5 ft. Anyway the lawn was supposedly cow proof and here this cow was stuck in the yard and deeply @ that. Evidently there was a hollow space a few inches underground and the cows leg had just gone through the spring mud into it. She wasn't hurt but somehow this was my dads fault that the cow was in the lawn or so said my mother. I was fascinated by the open cave like space under the ground that I had walked on every day of my life (later a spring popped up close by and there was a rock sidewalk buried in the ground there, the combination probably contributed to the open space). I wondered if maybe the devil was under there trying to get out and he had made the hollow waiting for someone to come by, I was also wondering HOW all of this could be my dads fault? Or maybe the devil had someone I knew under there and I could get them out? So now the devil was tied up with cows, a fear of dead bodies (squishy ones, not just any dead body), and a fear of being trampled.
Like I said I've gotten over the fears but not the memories. And my husband wants to get cows, that's OK, just not Holsteins.

Kreativ Award for Animals That Give Pause!

I won an award!!!! What a great Monday. It's from my friend SquirrelQueen, @ Through Squirrel Eyes. THANKS SquirrelQueen!! It's called the Kreativ Blogger Award as you can see.


Now in accordance with tradition (doesn't that sound official?) I'm supposed to tell you about seven of my favorite things.

1. My husband who is my best buddy too!
2. My family, kids, grand kids, sibling, niece, nephew, etc. crazy as they may be I love em.
3. Reading a really good book, if it has animals in it so much the better.
4. Animals, in particular dogs, and especially my bichon Dispatch.
5. Let's be honest, sleep and naps.
6. Blogging, writing, taking pictures, painting, drawing, all my creative outlets.
7. My house and lawn when they are clean and neat and groomed which doesn't happen very often anymore.

Now I have to pass the award on to seven of my blog friends. In no particular order, here are the seven! Drum roll, taaa daaaaaa!!!

1. Thomas K-9 Corner
2. Ask Spike Online, a fun source (sometimes serious) for all things doggie.
3. Checkers the Peekapoo, we have to get some dogs on here !
4. Shopping Kharma. One of the most courageous people I know.
5 .Gary One of my first followers, thanks Gary.
6. Monaliza - Hypnotic because she reminds me the glass is half full!
7. Ian Myers Writer, because he needs to keep writing!!

THANKS SquirrelQueen I am honored.
TC

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

Fishing Dogs And Kids

This isn't absolutely about animals but it does have a bichon, a labrador retriever, a terrier and fish in it.

My oldest grandson bought a small blow up boat. They called me @ work yesterday and told me we were having a "weekend."

This is Marcus 13 getting ready to go fishing this morning. Paris the cat is watching him, Paris was named after Paris Hilton because the cat was so pretty, Paris is a tomcat. Whoops.
This is Dispatch 5, thinking he's going fishing. He did go.

This is the gang, their mother my daughter included, Sara is in the lead, she's 7, walking down what used to be a cleared road by the "branch" what we call small creeks here in MO, the pond is 1/4 mile or more away. My dad built the pond before I was born and stocked it with perch and bass, which are still there. We drove the cub cadet down the lane (discovered part of my lawn furniture that had gotten left in the woods while someone was deer hunting?) but the crossing was washed out so we walked part way.

This is Skeeter and Mugsey getting cooled off after the long walk.

This is a video of Zach 14 in his boat, Marcus fishing, and Mugsey 2 and Skeeter 12-18 (rescue dog she was my dads, he got her in 99 and he passed away in 2001, we've had her ever since, she was old when he got her) getting cooled off and of course the Bichon Dispatch 5. The boat in the water is the bat boat, about a 1950s model with wings, we were going to use it in the pond but it just sat there and sunk. Jacob kept wanting Sara to take off her life jacket so he could "save" Mugsey because Mugsey (the labrador) kept swimming across the pond and Jacob thought he might have to save him?

This road is on the pond bank and we used to be able to drive a car up here or a big pickup. The aluminum boat I really don't know where it came from but the kids say it leaks. I hadn't been to the pond for years.

This is a video of my daughter JJ, Sara and Jacob 9 fishing. Dog just wants picked up, he is in NO PAIN. He finally went off with the other dogs and then laid in the water and mud. Not good on white fur.


This is a view across the pond.

I caught one and Sara caught her first fish we think! Zach said he caught like 20 after we left, our fishing got interrupted because this big white doughnut kept coming over the fishing grounds (Zach in his boat). When Zach caught a fish he said what do I do? I told him the fish had to come in the boat with him, he managed to get it off the hook, it was hilarious though, he's in a boat in the middle of a pond with a fishing pole and paniced when he caught a fish! We caught and released because no one (me) felt like frying fish. Look closely there is a fish on the end of Sara's line.

This is the bichon after fishing.

This is the bichon frise after we had lunch and I gave him a bath and we brushed him. My SIL brought food so we wouldn't have to cook, good son-in-law.
That was our glorious Sunday, nothing special except it was almost a perfect day spent with family which is the most precious thing in the world.

Quote courtesy of Quote Garden.
I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better. They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and they do not for all their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying. ~George Bird Evans, Troubles with Bird Dogs

Pedi Paws and Bichon Frise Video

My daughter gave me this Pedi Paws last night. Here's the video with the Bichon and the Pedi Paws, pardon the fat white legs and remember our family room is done in early junk, blob by the camera is an antique quilt on my dad's old office chair. My daughters English Bulldogs won't let her use the Pedi Paws, my nephew wrote a hilarious email quoting the TV commercial about the Pedi Paws and then said his dog wouldn't let him near him with it. Dispatch (bichon frise) "mouths" me when I brush him and growls, this is much better. He REALLY doesn't want me doing anything with his feet, Bichon's are sort of like really stubborn poodles or giant Maltese with minds of their own so this is an accomplishment. I've had to wrap Dispatch in a towel to get him to let me cut his nails, sometimes I think I just took him to the vet or the groomer to get his nails cut and the hair pulled out of his ears. Not that I'm afraid of a 17 lb. dog, it's just one of the unpleasant things about dog ownership. You have to understand too when Dispatch was about 6 months old I gave him a bath and was brushing him out, he started the growling thing and that was the first time he mouthed me (now I glare @ him and he quits), I had never had a dog do that and I yelled @ him and put him outside. This is a little white fluffy puppy mind you, he said FINE, and went and hid under the pickup and then sat about halfway down the driveway looking toward the highway waiting for his "daddy" to come home. I went and got him and finished brushing him after a little bit but that shows how stubborn he is. Anyway watch the video, he's nervous but it went quite well with the Pedi Paws don't you think?

From the dog's point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog. ~Mabel Louise Robinson

Miniature Schnauzer vs Bichon

This is Fema when she was a baby, She's a miniature schnauzer.
and here is a video of the Bichon Dispatch and Fema, Mugsey the lab (as a puppy) and Skeeter the terrier are in it too. Skeeter was old in 1999 when we got her so guess how old she is now? She was my dads dog and he only had her for a couple years before he passed away and so now I guess she's my dog more than anyones.


Dispatch likes to act like he's tough but Fema and he do play honest, Fema is my cousins dog, our neighbor down the road breeds miniature schnauzers. The neighbors across the street have one too who comes to visit who is Femas brother.

Tonight my husband and I vegged out after working, we watched a Costeau special on PBS about killer whales, highly interesting that they are so socialized and watch humans like we watch them?

Bichon and Baby

In this picture the bichon frise (Dispatch) wasn't like attacking, he was just worried because the baby was making these horrible squawking noises. Husband made me cut him out of the picture. I was amazed he held a newborn but he's pretty good with babies, bichon proved to be too. He hadn't been around any newborns that I could remember, we had had a baby drought in our grandchildren, it had been 6 years since the latest additions, before that it was about 1 a year. Enough to get my baby fix in. We were a little worried because Dispatch is so attached to us. He was jealous but he was also enchanted by the baby, he's like I didn't know humans came in such small packages, when can she pet me, why does she make those NOISES? Mama went into the other room to feed the baby and Dispatch followed watching to make sure all was OK.

Baby is Zowie Jean, youngest daughters 13 day old baby. Good baby and CUTE, or is it just me?

Ten Bo Obama's on Twitter

Yes you read right, there are only 55 Stephen King's and considering King is a fairly common name that's understandable (none are the Stephen King you are thinking about). Ten matches if you type in Bo Obama in Twitter search. Twitter.com

Check it out on Twitter, I just think it's funny, you wouldn't believe how many dogs blog. Dispatch still has trouble with typing, I swear he used to turn off the screensaver with the mouse because it scared him, was the one where the picture on the screen got bigger and bigger and bigger? The picture above is him patiently waiting for me to come back in the camper in MS, he used to sit there and watch out the window for me, not approved dog behavior, perhaps he was surfing too?