All in a Day's Work

“Hang on, little fella’,” Hank crooned as he heaved the half-frozen calf up over the saddle before climbing on the horse himself. “I’ll get you home and warmed up.”

A spring blizzard had moved in fast with man and beast hunkering down until it blew through. Hank left the comfort of his house to check on the few cows which had not yet calved. It never failed - as soon as the barometric pressure dropped, late term cows dropped their calves, sometimes in the worst storms. He easily located three of the heifers with newborns happily suckling on their mothers. The fourth was nowhere to be found.

If it hadn’t been for his hawk-eye vision, Hank might have missed this one. The heifer had sought shelter in a brushy draw at the base of a tree but Hank managed to catch a flash of Hereford red against the snow. She had successfully delivered the calf but appeared to have succumbed to the elements. The calf laid next to his deceased mother, to all appearances dead himself, but Hank could see a faint breath in the cold air.

Hank made it back to the ranch house in record time. He left the horse untended while he hurried in with the calf. “Emma! Get the bath tub filled with warm water.” Hank strode to the bathroom and placed the calf in the water as it ran. Both Emma and Hank massaged the calf feverishly to get his circulation going.

Suddenly, the calf started thrashing around in the water. Hank lifted him out and they both rubbed him vigorously with towels. Hank inserted his thumb in the calf’s mouth and was rewarded with a weak suckling movement which became more insistent.

Emma smiled at Hank.

“Hank, I do believe you saved this one.”