I'm interrupting my vacation slideshow for some breaking news here in the Hollow: We have a cow!

 

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Well, she's not actually ours. We're not even sure where she came from or how long she's been hanging around. We just spotted her wandering along the creek yesterday evening.

 

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All of the land around us use to be ranch land. Our ponds are really just watering holes, created when a rancher dammed up Long Hollow Creek years ago. But no one in our immediate area owns cows now. 

 

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She doesn't have a tag or brand. We can see she's a milker, but she doesn't seem to be producing milk now. But believe me, I'm no cow expert, that's for sure!

 

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I hope someone didn't just dump her out here. Do people dump cows when they get old or stop producing milk?

 

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Perhaps she just wandered through a break in some faraway fence, munching on grass until she looked up and realized she didn't know where the heck she was. Maybe she was drawn here by stories her parents told her about a sometimes-flowing creek and fields of green weeds. Maybe she decided to reclaim her ancestral territory.

Okay, I'll stop.

 

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I wish we could keep Bessie. However she got here, she's one tough cow.

But she's so skinny, and we know nothing about cows, so we called the Sheriff's department who contacted some real cowboys who I guess..I hope…will round her up and take her to a good place.

I'll keep you posted…

 

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21 responses to “Meet Bessie”

  1. Rae Sinor Avatar
    Rae Sinor

    Barb…we had the same things happen at the ranch…and it could have only been a few of the surrounding folks cows…1 bull and 3 heifers…we called and called and nobody ever claimed them…so they just stayed on the land and then all 3 Mamas had babies…so then we go from 4 cows to 7 cows and they are eating us out of protein that we put out for the deer…So we called some Cowboys and they brought out dogs and they rounded all but 1 Mama and a baby up and we took them in to town and sold them at auction and paid the Cowboys and pocketed the rest..Not sure it was total profit, as we have been feeding protein for over a year to all of them….ANd jut 2 weeks ago got the cowboys back out to get the last ones…as the baby had a baby so there were 3…ANyway…I digress to say that they are expensive to feed and sometimes people just let them out or maybe she broke out looking for food and nobody cares! 😦

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  2. Gail Avatar

    I was hoping you’d post pics here when I saw your FB status last night. Poor cow. I certainly hope no one dumped her. She even looks lost!

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  3. Hilary Avatar

    Awww poor sweetie. I’m glad you contacted authorities and I hope they’ll find a suitable home for her. She has such a sweet, sad (okay, so I’m probably Disneyfying) face.

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  4. Lisa Gordon Avatar

    Just saw Bessie on FB, and had to come here to see more!
    What a sweetheart.

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  5. beth Avatar

    poor bessie….
    i hope she finds her old home…but maybe they were cruel there and never read her bedtime stories so she left….. or they didn’t make her real lemonade on the super hot days or they made cow tipping jokes all the time….just think of all the reasons she could have walked out 🙂
    but seriously, if the old home was bad, i hope she finds a new good home !!!

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  6. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    I would have left over cow tipping jokes, too. A body can only stand so much! 🙂 From what we've been told, she's in a good pasture now. I hope so!

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  7. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Wasn't she? She's off in a pasture now. I hope she'll be happy!!

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  8. Rae Sinor Avatar
    Rae Sinor

    Great news!!!

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  9. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    I'm probably Disneyfying it, as well, but I thought she had a sweet face, too! I'm told she's been placed in a big pasture. I hope she's happy there!

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  10. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Yes, I'm so glad they were able to round her up and transport her to a good pasture!

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  11. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    She seemed to like it down here, but I felt so sorry for her and worried that she'd wander onto the highway. Otherwise, I'd have kept her!
     

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  12. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Wow, I didn't realize you had to feed them so much! (And I didn't realize you didn't have cows out on your ranch!) I'm glad the Sheriff's department responded so promptly. They were really helpful and concerned! I'm glad she's in a good place now.

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  13. Lady Fi Avatar

    What a sweet face. Hope she gets home soon or to a good place full of good food and love.

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  14. Suldog Avatar

    I love cows. Such generally sweet animals, and I’ve enjoyed milk and milk products so much over the years. God bless you for taking care of her as you were able.

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  15. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    I feel blessed that we were able to help out! I love cows, too, even though I know nothing about them!

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  16. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    We were told they were taking her to a good place full of food and love. I can only hope it's true!!

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  17. lisleman Avatar

    My first thought was using a Bart Simpson reference “don’t have a cow man” in your title.
    I assume there were no predators between the place she left to your place. With this drought maybe she was dumped off. Very interesting story and cow speculation.

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  18. lisleman Avatar

    Disneyfy – I don’t know I have not seen that word before. It makes perfect sense. In the Disneyfied world there are no bad creatures at all I guess.

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  19. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    Kind of like Narnia!

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  20. Barbara Shallue Avatar

    It's still a mystery to me how she ended up at our place. Although there used to be a lot of cow pastures around here, there aren't many left, and to get to our place from those she'd have to walk up and down a lot of hills and even cross a major road or highway. We have coyotes (and rumors of mountain lions) but I think the biggest danger to her would have been dehydration or cars. (I did use 'have a cow' in my Facebook post! lol We used to say it way before Bart did. I have no idea where we got it from… I guess the same place as the creators of The Simpsons!)
     

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  21. Wolf Pascoe Avatar

    I’m speechless. I guess anything can happen in Texas.

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