Valerie and Tough Shit

The heat and humidity was dreadful. It even made sweat run off the back of my neck with little or no effort done on my part.

We heard one of the hounds barking. Not that unusual really, Magic barks when he hears loud or strange noises. It could have been a truck on the gravel road on the ridge for all we knew.

That is, until we stepped outside.

We heard some weak bleating noise. Valerie, one of the four of our registered "American Dexter Cattle" had given birth to a calf.

Now the fella that sold us these heifers had said that they had been running loose with a bull since they were born.
So we knew that there was a possibility that one or two might be 'with calf'. We felt that they were all too young to be bred. [But that is another subject]

The little fella was weak and panting heavily from being in the sun. Hubby picked him up and moved him into the shade.
Valerie walked away. We thought perhaps we'd made a mistake by moving the calf, but surely it would die in the hot sun.
I had to go off to work.

I called home later to ask about the little bull calf. My husband indicated that he'd tried to get him to nurse, but the calf couldn't stand up on his own.
He'd given up and left the calf next to the fence so we could get rid of the body in the morning.

That was enough to bum me out for the whole night.

I couldn't see anything when I got home late last night...but this morning I heard the surprise in my husband's voice when he called to me.

*I went to get the body of the bull calf, and the little shit was gone! I started looking for coyote tracks or something figuring he'd gotten dragged off in the middle of the night. But there he is with Valerie!
What a tough shit he is!*

Here was the bull calf resting in the shade.
After watering and feeding the 'gals' we both mused on this little miracle.
After all, we'd been told that the small Dexter breed was indeed tough as nails.

I think this episode proved it.

We both agreed this was a Tough Little Shit.

[Rich's size 10 1/2 boot size over TS's back].

...and so the name came to us.

Welcome to the world Tough Shit...TS is what we'll call you from now on.
You beat the heat and the odds.
And congrats to a very excellent new mom, a 'first calf' heifer named Valerie who followed her instincts and did a wonderful job.