Calves ... now a Leppy

We have fall calving cows  So we have begun calving in this last week.  I love baby calves.  I think that they are one of the cutest of the baby creatures.  With their big ears... gangly legs...soft noses ... curious eyes under long eyelashes ... they are cute.  When they grow up into cows they quite loose the cute factor ... but the first month or so they are pretty cute.  Generally our cows take care of themselves when they calve.  We show up to make sure the baby gets a shot and an ear tag.  To me this is a splendid system.  The mom cleans them all up, feeds them, cares for them, guards them.  The other day though my husband brought me a calf in the back of the UTV.  It does not seem to have a mom.  We think that there were twins and only one got claimed by the mom.  No cow is searching for her lost calf.  So now I have a Leppy Calf.  A calf with no mom to care for it.  I get to be the mom and feed it every so many hours.  Making sure it gets what it needs.  It was cold and hungry.  We made it a shelter in the pig pen out of hay bales.  He was pretty weak and I really wasn't too sure if he would make it, but he is getting stronger.  And now I think he will.  I gave him some medicine and good warm milk with electrolytes mixed in.  That perked him up and he is doing well.  As I was headed out in the dark to feed him I remembered running down the driveway to the barn to feed my bummer lambs as a kid.  A warm bottle of milk inside my shirt to keep it and me warm in the cold.  These were lambs in the same boat - with no mom to care for them.  It seems to be cold and dark all the time when you have to feed bummers or leppies.  Though now as I am the Mom, I realize that my mom must have fed our lambs during the day while we were at school.  Thanks Mom!  I laughed at myself though thinking that this is one of those things that I did not realize to put in my job description of living in the countryside and having livestock.  I guess I better add it.