After living in Denver for fifteen years, my husband and I moved our family to the small Kansas town where I grew up. We were ready to get away from traffic and crowds and raise our kids in the open spaces. We bought old country buffet and set out to enjoy the good life.
My parent’s farm has been big for years and my husband has been intrigued a lot. He met an old gentleman who found him at the car dealership where he worked. Here he attended the auctions of the local cattle, wherefore the husband wanted a calf for him, and unknown to me, he asked him if he would buy it for him at the next sale, because the husband could not escape from work.
The following week, I called my husband saying that the man was bringing the calf and I could show him the pasture where he was going. Remember that our fences were not checked for health, and we had no provisions or equipment for the calves yet.
I saw a small calf, probably a bucket calf and so in fifteen minutes waiting for a man to arrive, because I had never met a calf I knew nothing, I was not in a position to fence my pasture. . When the man arrived and I first looked at this “calf”, I thought there must be some mistake. He looked almost grown up!
I showed the man where to unload the calf, and he went away. My kids are fascinated but a little nervous about the size. We were near the train station and around that time the train started to pass. In the country, when the train passes some country road, it has the sound of a whistle, because there are no weapons on these roads. All that happened. That calf fell over the fence and into our garden. The kid was pushed back into the pasture. He took off across the pasture, through the hedge on the other side, and continued at his next pace to the wheat field.
Scared and seeing signs of the dollar running away, I called my husband. He could not escape from work! I called my parents, my brother and any friends I could think of in thirty seconds and we all started a big hunt for the “calf”. We still haven’t spent the “calf” hours since my husband came home, but we watched until dark. For we would find it by searching around for days. Finally a friend recommended the free lost and found service on our local newspapers. I wanted to try something, as among the lists of lost dogs and cats, I had a lost “calf” posted. We almost had hope when three weeks later a man who lived two miles away called that he had an extra “calf” in the field. feeding with his cattle, he did not know how he got there. When my husband got to know the “calf” he had never looked at it and we had him with us for less than thirty minutes.
Sure enough, we would have gotten our lake money back. Oh, we didn’t know at the time what the money pit was going to be. For a year we spent money feeding this calf and it never got bigger. One day he seemed to be getting sick and so we called the vet. The vet made a “house call”, shot the “calf” and left. The next morning our calf died. The vet diagnosed them with brain aneurysm. Huh?
