Well now I feel bad. I was the one who encouraged Az to share some stories.
I guess I am a lot like Az in that I have lost my temper and done some things that looking back, maybe don't look all that good.
I don't think he hurt this cow too much and probably saved her life as if she had gone on the way she was, she was going to get shipped to the canners.
TTB (who by the way is a pretty nice lady Az, as is FH) have you ever had Copenhagen in your eyes? I have. Sure didn't blind me, but it made my eyes water pretty bad for a bit. Matter of fact, when driving long late hours, it's been known to help keep a feller awake!
And yup, Katy is a bunny hugger. I like little bunnies myself, but the fact remains that there are a lot of people who have never had to deal with rough, tuff, bad livestock. If you can hurt a cow with your feet or bare hands, let me know how. I've seen bulls and cows fight and really hurt each other and I've yet to find a way that I can inflict enough pain on one WITH MY BARE HANDS OR FEET that even made a slight impression on one.
Sure, feel sorry for a man hatin', horse cripplin' rip who should probably of been culled years ago, but never show any mercy on the feller who has to deal with them on a day to day basis. Join in the enviro, bunny huggin' movement, as it works both ways. Lets outlaw dehorning, branding and casterating also. Each of these is necessary and most of us ranchers do it, but I bet you can think of good reasons to do them and rationalize these practices. But you sure raise hell with someone who maybe loses his temper when he has put up with enough of this crap from this cow.
If you had read the story closely, you would see that Az and her had had lots of encounters before. Cattle like this will spoil the other cattle just like a fence crawler will train other cattle to crawl fence. He gave the old rip lots of chances to rectify her ways and become a christian. Finally, he had to get tuff and it got her turned around. Kind of like tuff love. and didn't hurt much more than her pride and she had some respect for a man and horse afterwards.
Maybe this wasn't a tale to be shared on an open forum and better to be heard by folks who know all about this first hand, but I got a chuckle out of it and it is dang sure a COWBOY story.
I'll bet Asz could tell some stories about spending countless hours moving dry cattle to water and other acts of kindness, but they probably wouldn't be as interesting.
Don't crank on Az, crank on me, as I was the one who told him to share it here.
Sorry Az, I thought we had more people who dealt with livestock on here, other than in gentle cattle in pens and with buckets of cubes to gather them. :wink:
If the cow had killed a horse or man, would you ladies have been happier with the story? Cause that has happened with cattle like this also.