My friends Joelle and Cory were visiting us from West Virginia today. It was not just a random visit. They brought along Sugar, a heifer they bought from us last year who needs to get bred. They have been trying to artificially inseminate Sugar, but it seems there must be something wrong with the semen they were using. Since I currently do not have a Jersey bull that is old enough to service, we made a date to put Sugar in with the Angus bulls at the other farm.
After getting Sugar settled in and visiting for a few minutes, Mike asked Joelle and Cory if they would like to go see the twins. They said, "Of Course" and Mike led the way to the corral where he had put Momma cow with the twin bull calves, Pete and (Re)Pete. Mike has had to keep Momma cow penned up in a smaller area because when she is out in the pasture, she runs off and leaves one of the calves. As long as she is in a smaller area, she allows them both to nurse.
When we got to the corral, there lay Pete in the sun but we did not see (Re)Pete. We all began looking for him, but there were only so many places that he could be and he was not in any of those places. We finally decided that either (a) he had slipped under the fence and gone out in the field or (b) someone had stopped and put him in their car and stolen him!
While Mike went to look for the calf, Joelle, Cory and I went on down to the farm house and visited with Mike's mother who gave us a tour of the house. The original part of the house was built in the 1700's. After our tour we headed back outside and I could tell even from a distance by the shrug of the shoulders and bewildered looks from Mike, that he had not found the calf.
As I walked with Joelle and Cory to their car we were discussing how the calf would have stayed close if he had slipped under the fence and how we would like to believe that folks were too honest to actually stop and steal a little baby calf, but evidence seemed to be pointing in that direction. About that time, we passed by the driveway between the back of the shop and the old milking parlor and Joelle exclaimed, "There he is!"
Sure enough, there he stood up against the side of the milking parlor. When we finally got Mike's attention, he came and got the little guy and put him back in the corral with his momma and twin.
I told Joelle it was just luck that she was there and saw him and that it must have been the "power of twins" that caused her to see him when she did. (Joelle is a twin as well.)
Pete and (Re) Pete were happy to be reunited and celebrated by drinking some of momma cow's milk!