Her First Calf
Her fate seizes her and brings her down. She is heavy with it. It wrings her. The great weight is heaved out of her. It eases. She moves into what she has become, sure in her fate now as a fish free in the current. She turns to the calf who has broken out of the womb's water and its veil. He breathes. She licks his wet hair. He gathers his legs under him and rises. He stands, and his legs wobble. After the months of his pursuit of her, now they meet face to face. From the beginnings of the world his arrival and her welcome have been prepared. They have always known each other.
Wendell Berry
The Sassy Nanny ranch has a few new faces (and feathers, and hooves) in the yard. Not only are there roughly 78 new young'uns, there is a very large (and sweet) horse named Cash and a trio of waddling, inquisitive geese. It's starting to look like a scene from Dr Doolittle, except I'd re-name the scene to Dr Dooalot-allthetime-everyday. Between locating wayward babies under the hay manger, bottle feeding them when the real deal isn't working and delivering each and every one of the newest Sassy Nanny crew members, Michael has had a very busy spring.
The geese remind me of the heavy-set, stern nuns at Annunciation school, waddling around the playground keeping all the Catholic young'uns in line.
Babies captured and on their way back to Mama— turns out baby goats have a lot in common with a toddler...they both wander.
Cash is remarkably patient and cautious around the little ones. He placidly chews while they wander between his legs, sniff his muzzle and scamper around the manger. And most importantly, he made Michael a cowboy— now that's a good addition to the Sassy Nanny menagerie. Yee-haw!
