Friday, March 19, 2010

Shipshe trip to see the .... baby cows???

I love to go to Shipshewana. You can spot me there on random Friday mornings throughout the year. I have yet to go for their famous flea markets - never have been. No, what I go for is what I think the auction house started with. Livestock auctions. Not just any livestock - horses. Yep. I LOVE the infamous Shipshe horse auction. The action of it, the fast pace, the strangely wide variety of different ages, skills, and temprements of horses, both registered and grade, trained, and wild. It can be such a craps shoot there. But it's fun. Today, for the first time this year, a friend and I went to Shipshe to eyeball the horses slated to go through the ring, and do a little shopping. So, in short, country girl fun day.
Now, usually, you will see the amish, the carriage horses, the drafts, saddle horses & ponies - and the tack. There is ALWAYS tack. LOADS of it. It's crazy the tack that goes through that place! Usually there are puppies too :) But, today, the horse load wasn't too heavy. There was precious few going through the ring. There were no puppies, I didn't even really see much in the draft horse section. Instead, over where the ponies usually are we found 4 of these:


4. Newborn. Baby.Bulls. Oh, my, God.

They were so precious. And, so very very little. Their umbilical cords were dried, but still hanging like dried up critter cords tend to do. And, they were hungry. Poor little buggers. We were in love with some baby cows. For a minute, I considered learning how to rope so I could justify showing up with baby cows. But, I did not have much money on me, thank goodness. And, we didn't come with a trailer. Pity. Because, had I cash & a trailer this morning, I would have in all likelihood come home with one of these:



They looked like they were little beef cows. One looked like it might be part holstein, as he had a lot of white, but mostly they were black, or dark brown.
I could have gotten them little halters. No, really - look.....


One of them looked just like that! They were so sweet, and mooing, and lonely & precious & cute & alone & they needed someone who would FEED them. And pet them. And put a halter on them, and give them carrots when they got big. But, what am I going to do with a full grown BULL after all? Butcher him? oh, right. I could not butcher a little orphan that I had rescued and bottle fed. That just don't jive with me. My husband would have had a fit, but he would have snuggled him too - DAD. Now, Dad would have had a coronary infarction and need to be airlifted to Kalamazoo whilst on life support. No, that little black bull was not worth upsetting Daddy.

But. I can't help but wonder. Had it been a little Jersey cow .... could I have turned away so easy? Oh, I don't know....




Norman? Is that you, Norman? Oh boy.

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