What a morning.

We went to visit Cliff's brother, Phil, and his wife yesterday.  Finally he has a calf on the ground.  So I came home and went to check on Babe, who is past due by three days and was bred around the same time as Phil's cow.  

Alas, there was no calf yet.  Come on, Babe!

We brought the three cats home from the vet's yesterday.  They seemed a little afraid to let me approach them.  I could tell they didn't feel the best.  They ate their cat food eagerly, though.  Jake seemed the hungriest, but let's face it, his surgery wasn't very severe.  

This cat had no name until the lady at the vet's office started filling out a card for her and insisted I give her a name.  "Suzie" came to mind, so now she has a name.  She looks a little deformed because of the area they shaved for the operation.  

Mama Kitty seemed to be the most uncomfortable of the lot.  You know how it is:  we older folks don't bounce back quite as easily as the youngsters.  She's eating well, though, and venturing out of the barn to find just the right place to dig.

Mama Kitty's sutures.  We are now officially a three-cat family.  Two would have been sufficient, but I happened to like these particular cats.  No more kittens to worry about getting rid of, no more cats spraying my front porch.  Now if only they stick around and catch enough mice to be worth two hundred bucks.    

Oh yeah, my morning.  I went out before it was completely light to check on Babe.  I saw all the cows not so far from the house, out by the area Cliff recently seeded.  As I got closer, I realized Babe was IN the newly-seeded pasture.  As unlikely as it seems, she evidently just went through the electric wire, left muddy tracks all around, and lay down.  I came back and told Cliff, turned off the electric fencer, lowered the wire closest to her, and tried to drive her out.  
No way.  She would NOT be driven.  
I came back and got Cliff.  We tried two or three different things and finally got her out, got the fence put back up, and electrified it again.  While doing all this, we noticed some signs that there may be a calf coming in the next twenty-four hours.  
Oh, and you know my pride-and-joy heifer, Jody, the one I raised from a calf?  She has a pretty severe limp.  It's her right rear leg causing the trouble.  We're wondering if she slipped on the mud (we got 3/4 inches of rain yesterday).  Sometimes a cow will get in a slick spot and do the splits, and it can be pretty serious.  Since Jody is able to walk, I am hoping and praying she will get better.  If she doesn't, we will have to decide whether to try and keep her going at least until she has her calf in February or butcher her before she loses her good condition.  But I really hope it doesn't come to that.  
Yeah, it has been quite a morning.