Reece immediately tossed the calf-puller pole down and leaned down. Then he let out a little whoop. “It’s alive. Holy shit, I can’t believe it. Little guy’s actually alive!”
“Oh my God, really?”
I couldn’t tell, it was lying limp on the ground. I leaned down, aiming the flashlight closer.
But Reece was getting right in there, sticking his fingers in the little calf’s mouth, checking its airways were clear, I assumed. And indeed, little eyes blinked open against the light, befuddled.
The animal was wet and slick with blood and afterbirth, and then the wet had gotten dirty and muddy from the floor, but it was also one of the most amazing things I’d ever seen in my entire life.
I’d just witnessed the birth of life.
“What now?” I asked excitedly. “Will it nurse?” I looked back up at its mother who was still banging against the chute agitatedly. Maybe she was just trying to get to her new baby?
“First let’s get them both out of here into the yard,” Reece said. “It’s cold out there but maybe if we give them some space Mama will clean…” Reece lifted one of the baby’s legs, “her off and she can get to nursing like any other calf.”
Reece tried to pick the little calf up to see if she would stand on her legs, but she just immediately collapsed right back into the dirt. “Come on, little lady,” Reece said.
Then he lifted it into his arms like it was nothing, even though the calf had to weigh at least sixty pounds, probably more, and carried it towards the other end of the barn that opened to another much smaller pasture, more just a small yard.
He set the calf down and tried to get it to stand but it immediately crumpled back to the ground again. “Hmm,” he said.
“What? Don’t all baby calves take a while to figure out walking?”
He shook his head. “Calves should be able to do it right after birth. Or at least within a few hours. Let’s bring Mom out here and see if she’ll clean her off and bond with her at least.”
Reece made me climb outside of the fence while he let out the mother, which I took to be responsible of him considering that the mother didn’t seem any less agitated once she was free again.
She certainly didn’t seem to be interested in the new baby we’d just pulled out of her.
Reece kept trying to entice her to take notice of her newborn, but she’d just charge right past the baby, looking for the exit of the yard back out into the bigger pasture.
Finally Reece climbed over the fence where I was. “Maybe it’s just cause I’m here. We’ll give her twenty minutes to figure it out for herself.”
“What happens if she doesn’t?”
Reece’s mouth flattened into a hard line. “Well, then my brother will be pissed at me and we’ll have to bottle feed the calf for a little bit while we keep trying to get her mom to take her in.”
“That’s terrible. How can she not connect with her? It’s her own child!”
Reece looked my way and laughed. “Hey, it’s okay. It happens.”
I nodded absently. Yeah. Sure. I guess it would be weird to say I had a thing about mothers not loving their kids enough to fight for them when it mattered. But that was definitely more a me issue than this poor cow’s fault.
“You cold?” Reece asked, looking over at me. “Jesus, where are my manners? We could go in and get some coffee and a bite to eat. Shit. If you came in from the main road, that’s a long walk. And then I put you to work with the cows.”
He wiped his hands on his jeans, but I wasn’t sure that made much of a difference, considering what he’d just been handling with all that had been covering the little calf, hugging it to his chest as he carried it into the yard. Both of us were fairly stinky at this point, but at least I wasn’t covered in cow birth.
I laughed. “Maybe you shouldn’t go in the house but I could get you something to eat and drink. I’m pretty good around a kitchen if you just aim me in the right direction.”
He looked down at himself and his look of dismay was comical when he looked back up at me. “Shit, this isn’t the best first impression, huh?”
I laughed out loud at that. “You’re doing just fine. I’m… Charlotte, by the way.” Charlotte? Where the hell had that come from? I’d always thought it sounded pretty, like a name I might call a daughter if I ever had one. But then I suddenly panicked because what if I didn’t answer when people called me it? Not that I’d be here long enough for—
“Charlie for short,” I quickly amended. I was used to going by Penny, and Charlie would be a natural shift.