Well, the cows are losing their charm. I'm preparing to change my vote from phone # on their sides to electric fence. I walked into my office yesterday and caught the vision of the mother cow out of the corner of my eye. She was 2-3 feet from the guest bedroom window--right next to the front door and porch. I used to joke about the song "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" because of deer running around out here, but a 5 hundred + pound cow is even less appealing. I have seen them all romp and play, so I know they can run.....and I don't want to be in their way when they do. I had visions of myself having walked out the front door, being startle with a scream, and her running me down as she headed in the direction of her home.
I decided we needed to start discouraging them, so I opened the window, clapped my hands, and said go home--in a loud scary voice. You know from previous posts that the ducks and squirrels are not very afraid of me when I try to discourage them from the bird feeders. Apparently, she was not very intimidated either and just sort of looked at me. I wasn't sure if I should be scared of her. I said to Stan last week when the little male just stood his ground and stared, "cows aren't aggressive, are they?". He said, "Have you seen a bull fight?" Anyway, she did finally meander down toward the lake, collected her 4 calves, and headed to the opening in the woods where they generally go home. I opened my back window, clapped, and said "go home" again to encourage their movement. They stopped, there was apparently a time delay,and all of the sudden they started stampeding in the opposite direction across the damn, and over the hill. There are woods on both sides of the other lake over there behind ours and two large houses.
I could not tell where they went until I saw in the distance 3 of the four of them still in stampede mode running in front of one of those house--probably close to the road in the direction of their house. There are children and dogs over there and I could here what may have been several neighbors and the owners yelling. Hopefully no one was injured.
The next thing I could hear was the most pitiful and loud bauling from one of the calves who had apparently gone right when everyone else finally got their bearings and went left. I was afraid he/she may have gotten hit by a car , it was so loud and pitiful. Then mom and siblings started mooing loudly back to give some direction I suppose. A few minutes later, I saw this last lost calf go running through the same yards and the children yelling again. Again, I hope no one was hurt.
Although for a city girl, seeing cows this close was fun at first, I'm not so much for being part of this free range cattle ranch anymore and am changing my vote. In the meantime, anyone have any cow repellent ideas?
I decided we needed to start discouraging them, so I opened the window, clapped my hands, and said go home--in a loud scary voice. You know from previous posts that the ducks and squirrels are not very afraid of me when I try to discourage them from the bird feeders. Apparently, she was not very intimidated either and just sort of looked at me. I wasn't sure if I should be scared of her. I said to Stan last week when the little male just stood his ground and stared, "cows aren't aggressive, are they?". He said, "Have you seen a bull fight?" Anyway, she did finally meander down toward the lake, collected her 4 calves, and headed to the opening in the woods where they generally go home. I opened my back window, clapped, and said "go home" again to encourage their movement. They stopped, there was apparently a time delay,and all of the sudden they started stampeding in the opposite direction across the damn, and over the hill. There are woods on both sides of the other lake over there behind ours and two large houses.
I could not tell where they went until I saw in the distance 3 of the four of them still in stampede mode running in front of one of those house--probably close to the road in the direction of their house. There are children and dogs over there and I could here what may have been several neighbors and the owners yelling. Hopefully no one was injured.
The next thing I could hear was the most pitiful and loud bauling from one of the calves who had apparently gone right when everyone else finally got their bearings and went left. I was afraid he/she may have gotten hit by a car , it was so loud and pitiful. Then mom and siblings started mooing loudly back to give some direction I suppose. A few minutes later, I saw this last lost calf go running through the same yards and the children yelling again. Again, I hope no one was hurt.
Although for a city girl, seeing cows this close was fun at first, I'm not so much for being part of this free range cattle ranch anymore and am changing my vote. In the meantime, anyone have any cow repellent ideas?
Here is my secret recipe for cow-repellent:
ReplyDeleteMix one part strongly-worded letter with one part lawyer and mix well. Sprinkle a generous helping of electric fence and a dash of date-stamped photographs of each visit to your yard. Pour into a decorative dish and share with your neighbors!