No Reason Why

Trigger warning - pet death

It seems the second things are going right, the second I find myself enjoying life again, something always goes horribly wrong. But it's been a long time since life has thrown a curveball as terrible as last weekend.

On Saturday my mum, me, and Chantel went to Melbourne, for the AHBL9 Supernatural convention. It all went really well and we were having a fantastic time, up until Sunday afternoon about 4pm when we got the message that things back at home had gone terribly wrong. 

One of our four pet calves (who are now two year olds) had gotten tangled up in the hay feeder sometime during the night and had a serious leg injury. Although the vet said she hadn't broken any bones, there was muscle damage and Stormfly couldn't stand up. With such a big animal the inability to stand is a death sentence. The vet gave her antibiotics and pain relief for the night but he said it would probably be best to put her down. 

I don't remember much of the convention after that. I got my photos signed by the actors and tried to smile. Sparkie behaved like a professional of course, doing her job and trying to keep me in the moment. We wanted to take a train back that night but there were none until the morning.

So we left the city just before dawn, exhausted and anxious. It was three hours to the farm. Stormfly had not been able to stand up during the night and was now unable to keep herself sitting upright either. We stayed with her for hours, keeping her calm and trying to keep her sitting up. We offered her food and water but she wouldn't really take any. She was tired. We were all tired. Over the next few hours it became clear that she would never be able to stand up again, and twenty-four hours after that first terrible message, Daddy was calling the vet to put her down. We couldn't allow her to suffer any more.

Our three remaining "calves" watched the tractor carry her body away to be buried. There was excessive affectionate grooming between the three of them. They haven't called for their missing friend. I think they understand that she's gone. 

It was a freak, tragic accident. There are maybe twenty other cows in that paddock and we've been using that exact hay feeder for over a month. Why did it have to be one of ours who got injured, and on the one weekend we were gone?? There is no reason why. Life is unpredictable and cruel.

Worth The Fight

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted here. Sorry I've been so slack at updating. We got ourselves a new dairy farm job a month ago, its practices so dramatically different from our last job it almost feels like a different industry. Animal welfare is held to such a high standard they don't even separate the calves from the cows until weaning time. The babies stay with their mothers all day, feeding and socializing and playing in the paddocks until milking time, where they are separated for just a few minutes while their mother goes through the milking shed, and then they go back together for the night. 

We had a little calf, "Dot," who got sick. About the same time, she somehow hurt her leg so bad it couldn't take any weight. And then shortly after that, the foxes got to her. She was a fighter and we did what we could, but in the end she couldn't do it anymore. We made the call that she wasn't ever going to recover, and the boss got a vet to come out and humanely euthanize her, ending her suffering. It was the kindest thing for her, but something that was never an option at the old farm.

We went to Geelong two weeks ago to compete in an agility trial, and Skuggi ran eight courses over the two days, managing to get placings in half of them. We got two seconds, a third, and a fourth. He really loves this sport!

In two weeks it's Sparkie's turn for another adventure, where we take on the city for the weekend, for AHBL9. It's always so much fun to hang out with other fans of Supernatural, meet some of the actors, and do a little bit of sightseeing. "Touristy" stuff. Hopefully the weather is nice to us.