Answering questions about the previous entry

Vicki asked, "Is Bonnie pregnant?"  
As far as we know, she is.  Had she not been bred, she should have shown signs of heat around Thanksgiving Day; we were watching her pretty closely.  Cows come in heat every eighteen to twenty-three days.  
Ms Martyr asked, "Does mastitis ever go away or does it permanently damage the udder?" 
Sometimes mastitis is successfully treated, especially if you get right on it.  Dairies treat it all the time.  Unfortunately, Bonnie contracted mastitis before she calved, so I wasn't milking her and had no idea she had a problem.  By the time she had her calf, one quarter was pretty much dry already and the other one was only giving about half the milk it used to.  The two quarters affected are on her "off" side, so they're not the ones I milked.  
It's been my experience that once a cow has had mastitis, it tends to recur in the affected quarter, even if it's effectively treated.  
Although Bonnie is a dairy cow, I really wasn't worried about milk production when I got her.  I used to have several Jerseys, and I missed those pretty little faces in the the pasture; I bought her for a pet.  The milk was, and is, a fringe benefit.  So is the beef from her calves.  Although the damaged quarters would affect her resale value, they don't matter to me at all.  And they don't cause her pain or discomfort.  
Also, Ms Martyr, as to your questions about Cliff's ketchup addiction:  No, I don't believe he ever substituted ketchup for the tomato in a BLT.  
He said what got him in trouble most often as a kid was his love of ketchup sandwiches:  He'd soak two slices of bread with ketchup and put them together, then put some ketchup on his plate and dip the sandwich into the extra ketchup before each bite.  
He says that for some reason there was a shortage of ketchup in the house when he was growing up.  Now there's a shocker.  
And Anonymous asked, "What were you drinking when you did that last entry in your blog?"  
Okay, so I'm making that up; but I'll bet somebody was thinking that very thing.  The answer is coffee.  So, ha!