Man plans, God laughs

This morning I got bad news.  I will copy and paste the messages that went back and forth, so you get the picture:

I have some awful news that makes me feel sick to even tell you. Last night I was wrapping up chores and went to check on our little boy one more time. He’s been with his mom in a large outdoor calving pen. She was laying by herself and initially I didn’t see him so looked around more closely and found him badly injured, appearing to have been either stepped on or laid on by her. He was struggling to breath and I think he had collapsed lungs/broken ribs. I attempted to move him to take him to the emergency vet and he made it evident that wasn’t a good idea. I could tell by how he was moving that he had way too much damage and I had to put him down. It was traumatic and it makes me sick to even repeat it but I have to tell you. I’ve never lost a calf like this. She was an incredible mother. I don’t understand how this happened. I’m really

sorry. I know you were looking forward to him and I was thrilled he was getting a loving home.  

I do have two more due to calve end of June/early July. I’ll make sure you get my next little bull. 

Don't feel bad about it for me. Yes, I was excited. But I have learned that God works out everything for good. We can make plans, but things go wrong. You will have a boy available at the right time, I'm sure. We never know what's ahead, and we definitely can't control things like this.

Farm life is hard sometimes. I especially hate when it’s the babies.

I hate it when it's the best milk cow. All my Jerseys turned out to be pets. I even halter-broke them. So the very first time I lost my best cow, I cried for days... not because I lost an expensive dairy cow, but because I loved her.

I lost the best cow I’ve ever owned last Oct. She was 10 years old but she was very youthful and had so much life left in her. She got coliform mastitis and went down and although I was able to fix the mastitis and toxicity, she never got back up - even after 2 weeks of lifting her in a Daisy sling multiple times a day and flipping her between lifts - and ultimately I had to put her down. Her name was Kallie. She’s the cow in my profiles background picture. It’s part of having animals but it’s never easy and I always wonder what I could have done to prevent it.

Exactly. Actually, I hope your next two calves are heifers, because there will be a calf for me at some point anyway, and you need a heifer or two to cheer you up. Who knows, something might happen that would make me unable to have a calf before you get another boy. At my age, a person just don't know what tomorrow will bring,

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That picture I shared in the last entry?  That is what all Jersey calves look like at birth, so if I get one from her later, it will look pretty much the same, unless it happens to be one of the rare ones that has some white on its face.  

Now I want to meet this lady and her cows.  I'll bet Cliff would be glad to take me over there before long; when we go, I'll take along a jar and buy a gallon of good Jersey milk.