New Zealand Life

Lily

September 2nd, 2011
"Hello?" Mom and I were in the car in the covered car park at the Westfield Mall.
"Hi Honey. What's going on?" Mom asked.
"What?!!!"
"Oh, great."
"Uh hu."
"Well, you need to call the vet."
"You need to take care of it; I'm an hour and a half away I can just come home for this."
"Call the vet; I think theres a number in the drawer in the kitchen."
"Yes at the bottom."
"Okay."
"Love you, Bye."
"What happened?" I asked.
"A cow's down with a dead baby."
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Twenty-five minutes later
Rrrriiinnnggg! Rrrriiinnnggg!
"Can you answer that, please?" Mom asked.
"Sure." I picked the phone up and snapped it open.
"Hello?"
"Julia? Is Mom there?" John's voice came through.
"Umm, she's driving."
"Oh. Okay. Tell her were at the farm with the vet."
"They're at the farm with the vet." I parroted.
"And?" She asked.
"What happened?"
"He said that sometimes cows get paralyzed when they're giving birth and that if she's not up soon, she probably won't make it. We can hire someone to get her out or bury her."
"Uh hu."
"And he gave her some penicillin and magnesium to help her."
"'Kay. Thanks."
"Bye."
I relayed the message to mom.
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September 3rd, 2011
"What did he say we should do with the calf?" John, Mom, and I had parked at the top of the hill by EVER pond and were walking into the back pasture.
“He said we could bury it or just throw it into the wooded area.”
“Okay. Can you throw it into the wooded area? I can’t see a dead calf.”
“Sure.”
“Julia? Why don’t you go herd the cows out of here?”
“’Kay.” I ran off and herded the cows out with help from Mom and John.
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September 4, 2011
“Where’s a bucket?” Mom asked.
I handed the black plastic 9.6L bucket to my Mom.
“Okay.” She dug the bucket into a bag of feed we’d bought for the cow. She still wasn’t standing, but we were going to try and help.
“You fill that bucket with water and then bring it down. Don’t get your pants wet.”
“I won’t.”

When I brought down the bucket of pond water, Mom was holding the feed bucket at an angle so the cow, # 313, could eat it from her position on the ground.
“Quietly. Don’t scare her.” Mom reprimanded. I came forward slowly and carefully and set down the bucket of water. 313's breath echoed through the bucket loudly, and its tongue licked into its nose when it was done. Mom tilted the feed bucket toward the cow again whispering ‘good girl’ and ‘its okay’ to her. I went and got another bucket of water and stood with my hand clasped behind my back when I suddenly announced, “Lily. We should name her Lily.” We had decided we would name our cows flowers when we’d first gotten them, and Lily seemed to suit this one.
“Okay.” Mom agreed, and so #313 was named Lily in a pad of mud and cow pies.

A few minutes later, Lily suddenly lurched up.
“Get back.” Mom put a protective arm in front of me, and I stepped backwards. She stayed standing for a couple seconds and then collapsed as suddenly as she had gotten up.
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September 5, 2011
We fed Lily again, and I brought her to two bucket of water again. She stood for about 30 seconds, today. Mom thinks that she’s definitely getting better.
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September 6, 2011
When we went to feed Lily, she wasn’t in her bed of mud! Instead, she had walked to the top of the hill and was grazing again. She was walking on her ankles and hitting the back of her legs with her hooves, but was much better otherwise.
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October 2011
We can no longer tell which cow is Lily, unless we see her ear tag. She no longer lags behind when the rest of the herd runs. Just proves that sometimes TLC can sometimes solve what seems like a hopeless situations.

~ Julia ~