My Baby
☆ September 23, 2010
Sir Baby.
I love this bull.
He has remained gentle and sweet and so very dear, even when he was in with the heifers and everyone said he would turn mean for a spell. He always came to me when I would visit him, and lean against me ever so gently as I leaned against him.
He’s huge. He’s huge for a yearling and he still has a year or two of growing yet to do. His hooves are heavy and jet black, his shoulders are massive, his hair is thick and curly…. he belongs on the cover of a romance novel.
I get so filled with pride when I look at him, at how he’s grown into such a perfect expression of what he’s meant to be.
I’m so glad he’s home again.
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83 Responses to “My Baby”
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September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:27 am
Awww! He’s such a handsome guy!
Is this a recent pic? Is it already getting cold up there? Wish it was here in Houston…still hot!
Tell all the farmily Hi from Texas!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:29 am
Bull Snuggles…a whole new meaning for BS, eh?
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:30 am
Oh how a long for a cow couch!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:32 am
What a lot of Bull!
(Sorry, It popped into my head and I couldn’t resist). ;-)
Beautiful shots and I admire your rapport with all your
amazing animals.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:38 am
Girl, you crack me up! ;-)
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:43 am
This is adorable – my father (rest Daddy) was an Ag major who loved the beasts (and children) like we do – I wish he could see this. It would make him SO happy.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:43 am
In June of this summer I attended a birthday party for my boyfriend’s uncle. Someone brought a pig as a present but my BF’s uncle wanted nothing to do with it.
My BF’s sister in law adopted the pig, naming it Gordy. A pen was made specifically for Gordy in the family farm’s barn filled with angus cows. From that day forward, Gordy will get up as soon as he hears someone walking into the barn, and will begin to OINK in excitement. He will run right up to the pen’s gate and just like a dog, will begin to lean into the gate or our legs as we scratch and pet him. He has never attempted to hurt anyone and has turned into a loveable pig at the farm.
it’s so funny how farm animals can turn out to be the most loveable and appreciative.
Thanks for sharing this story about Sir Baby and I’m glad you’ve been reunited again for the winter!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:44 am
In June of this summer I attended a birthday party for my best friend’s uncle. Someone brought a pig as a present but my BF’s uncle wanted nothing to do with it.
My BF ended up adopted the pig that night, naming it Gordy. A pen was made specifically for Gordy in the family farm’s barn filled with angus cows. From that day forward, Gordy will get up as soon as he hears someone walking into the barn, and will begin to OINK in excitement. He will run right up to the pen’s gate and just like a dog, will begin to lean into the gate or our legs as we scratch and pet him. He has never attempted to hurt anyone and has turned into a loveable pig at the farm.
it’s so funny how farm animals can turn out to be the most loveable and appreciative.
Thanks for sharing this story about Sir Baby and I’m glad you’ve been reunited again for the winter!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:50 am
I bet he smells good too…..
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:56 am
@Robin Nowak OMG don’t you just love cow and horse smells?!?!?!?!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 7:59 am
Sir Baby is soooo beautiful.
I once had the pleasure of hugging and cuddling a massive Black Angus Bull named Shaq (while his equally massive White Charolais girlfriend watched). It’s a powerful experience.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:00 am
Your love for animals, Shreve, surpasses even mine. Thank you for sharing a tender moment of your life with us. And a double thank you for sharing another glimse of the author we love.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:01 am
Bulltherapy! And if I were a betting person, I’d put money on it being more helpful than the other kind of leather couch.
Its sad that bulls are so misunderstood. Animals do not turn mean when all they’ve experienced is kindness. I wonder why that seems to be such a difficult concept for some…
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:04 am
So hard to believe that such a large, lumbering animal, can be so gentle. I love it.
A handsome boy for sure!!!!!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:14 am
I absolutely love the second shot of you and Baby looking at the camera.
One of my best friends grew up on a dairy and swears those cows all acted like big friendly dogs when he would go out to milk them or just visit. They’d turn their head so he would scratch behind their ears, and sometimes try to lick him.
I grew up around beef cattle and they didn’t seem nearly as outgoing. :P
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:27 am
Animals who walk on four legs are not that much different from those who walk on two, though those on four tend to return kindness more easily. There is a lot more to them than people credit. Don’t be afraid to explore and go where no one has gone before.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:33 am
Now that’s the way to ride a bull! He is so very handsome just as you describe.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:35 am
He is so cute! (and he even looks at the camera =)
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:44 am
Perhaps you should have named him Ferdinand. Are you familiar with the children’s book about Ferdinand the bull who didn’t want to fight in the ring, but smell the flowers instead? It was my favorite when I was a child and I recently bought a new copy of it. In the pictures, Ferdinand is a big, black bull, too!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:49 am
I want to hug a bull!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:55 am
Wow, a bull-couch!! I just have a bunny-pillow, and quite an uncooperative one. But anything bigger won’t fit into my living space. Just love them all so much.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:57 am
Watch out there, Europa.
That bull may not be who you think he is… ;)
September 23rd, 2010 @ 9:12 am
Ahhhhh I want to hug a bull too!!! He is beautiful…
September 23rd, 2010 @ 9:37 am
Such a handsome boy!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 9:38 am
So jealous! He is so beautiful! Reminds me of a big black lab I own, you could probably lay on him too, just a big old teddy bear! Love a snuggly critter!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 9:54 am
Havn’t seen knee patches on jeans since the ’70’s – seems so appropriate here! :))
September 23rd, 2010 @ 10:02 am
sir baby rocks
September 23rd, 2010 @ 10:09 am
Ahhhh – I sigh with closed eyes in ecstasy over these shots and imagine the smell of autumn air, plains grasses, sage, manure and bull hide. I live alone and honestly, I can’t remember a time when I’ve craved hugs more than in the past month. What I wouldn’t give for even a moment on Sir Baby’s back. I’ll live vicariously through you today, Shreve. He is indeed a handsome boy; Fabio literally pales in comparison for the cover of that romance novel you mentioned.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 10:10 am
this is such a joyful animal husbandry photo…so lovely!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 10:19 am
Awesome pic– He is a handsome one for sure! Also, cute boots by the way.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 10:20 am
Lovely photos! Glad you have your Baby back, and thank you for sharing!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 10:48 am
Can we get a shot of Frisco? I am sure he is just as adorable.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 11:45 am
& Baby loves to be hugged by you!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 12:09 pm
His face is just absolutely, positively adorable. When I click on the photo to make it bigger, his adorable, shiny nose just popped out at me. It looks too perfect, like it was sewn on his face. He is just the cutest damn thing ever! You can see the look of content on his face because Mom is giving him some TLC.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 12:13 pm
This has made my day. :)
September 23rd, 2010 @ 12:27 pm
So funny and so touching, the two of you together. Glad to know that Baby is well and reunited with you and the Farmily for now.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 12:58 pm
how awesome….I just love when you said he belongs on the cover of a romance novel…Sir Baby beats Fabio any day in my book!!!!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
Just makes me grin. Great pictures!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
what a delight! your writing as well as sir babyboy!
do you wonder what goes on in the minds of animals when we hug them? they’re so accepting of it & seem to enjoy it – even seek it – as much as we do – err, well, except our dog, who heaves enormous sighs (of the ‘woe is me my life is so awful’ sort!) when we hug him . . . maybe better not to ask!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 1:42 pm
I love, love, love this!!!!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
If everyone had a bull to hug, I think the world would be a better place.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 1:58 pm
awwwwwwwwww….once again you’ve made my day! :)
September 23rd, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
I the first pic it looks like he’s mooing, “Mom, you’re embarrassing me.” But by pic two he’s forgotten to pretend like he doesn’t like it.
Did the breeding go well? Are there going to be tons of Baby-babies in a few months?
September 23rd, 2010 @ 3:08 pm
But surely you were mauled by the vicious beast afterwords…
Very Hug-a-bull.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 3:17 pm
Shreve, I love and admire the parts of your life that you graciously share with us. This photo was the best part of my day thus far.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 3:38 pm
Aw! This picture gave me such smiles. I follow this and the Daily Coyote religiously because your posts and your pictures bring such happiness to my day! This one was especially sweet, and I love seeing the wonderful relationships you have with your animals.
-Lizzie
September 23rd, 2010 @ 3:41 pm
Some creatures we just ‘bond’ with in such a unique way. I am so honored to possess a lock of his extraordinary thick curly hair! These pictures simply say LOVE.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 4:24 pm
I agree with everyone. I love the way horses, bulls, cows, puppies, smell. It says so much about you, Shreve, that your ark has only gentle, mindful, creatures.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 4:50 pm
He’s just a doll-baby, through and through.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 5:01 pm
Love these pics Shreve! You have such a beautiful connection to your animals.
September 23rd, 2010 @ 5:20 pm
Glad Sir Baby is back for the winter. I love the second picture when he looks at the camera. Love your boots!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 5:44 pm
Haha, awesome. Love this!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
Sir Baby is a hunk of burnin’ love!
You two are sooo in love and it makes me smile!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 6:34 pm
How do you do it? I have 3 Jersey calves, just about a year old, my baby girls and I treat them as such. They love having their heads scratched and they usually come to me when I call them, but I can’t imagine them allowing me to lay on them as you do Sir Baby. I wanna be a cow whisperer like you!!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 8:58 pm
These are great photos!
September 23rd, 2010 @ 9:01 pm
That might be the best photograph I have EVER seen, and you might be the coolest chick I’ve never met ;). When will your next book come out? Great photo – great life, Shreve…
September 23rd, 2010 @ 9:20 pm
that last photo of you hugging your bull really melts my heart. it’s just SO happy!! thanks for sharing with us<3
September 23rd, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
What a wonderful treasure of a photo! You are one lucky girl, I’d love to have a Sir Baby of my own! Alas, Pittsburgh isn’t really cow country…
September 24th, 2010 @ 12:16 am
He’s like a great, big puppy.
September 24th, 2010 @ 6:31 am
Everytime I talk about adopting an animal, be it a cow, mouse, goat, someone will say, “What are you doing to do with that?” I always say, “love it!” I usually get told, “You can’t love a cow, mouse, goat.” You are proof that lots of love can tame the wildest beast.
September 24th, 2010 @ 9:15 am
Jeez. This makes me feel entirely different about my leather loveseat. :(
September 24th, 2010 @ 10:37 am
Tervicz: DITTO WHY do people think an animal who has been so loved, trained, and worked with think they will “go wild’ because they are gone for while?? I raised a squirrel, still came to me years after I let her go back out on her own(she decided, not me). When she came, she always wanted to cuddle down in my shirt like I carried her round when she was young.
September 24th, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
Shreve,
It strikes me that you came to this adventure with an artist’s (photographer, writer,..) openness to seeing, and with very little in the way of preconceived notions (like about cattle, bulls, coyotes, even geese and dogs). You bring joy, wonder, and love to the rest of us! There’s a profound connection I think. It will be a daily meditation for me to open up, to try to be aware of preconceptions, and to let them go when I can. *Thank you.*
And as a scientist, I really want to know what signals pass between us and other animals as to what is in our hearts.
September 24th, 2010 @ 2:01 pm
He is so clean and gigantic, like a buffalo. Peaceful animals.
Congrats on the shirts at the thrift store…..A million years ago in NYC we were Salvation Army regulars….
September 24th, 2010 @ 3:09 pm
Do you think Sir Baby is larger than most bulls his age cause he grew up drinking Daisy’s milk? As you know, Jersey milk is so much richer other cow’s milk.
Milk! It does a Bull Body good! :-D
September 24th, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
That is so sweet. It’s the way men should be. Supportive.:0)
September 24th, 2010 @ 7:49 pm
In the dictionary, next to the word “love” should be picture #2.
September 24th, 2010 @ 8:37 pm
Lovely lovely lovely. And more lovely.
September 24th, 2010 @ 10:39 pm
You and Sir Baby crack me up. Just his name gets me started :) I tell my family about your blog as if I were experiencing it too. I really wish I was, I’d love to give Sir Baby a hug. And he loves you so much too!
Now if I could just get the cows across the street to let me hug them…
September 25th, 2010 @ 10:11 am
There’s something about you – your life, your world, your perspective, your spirit… Its jealousy and inspiration, wonder and resolve… With all the riches you have and the way that you share them, you seem to enrich every life you touch. Its weird to be able to say that we (your audience) are better off simply because of a website. Thank you.
September 25th, 2010 @ 2:52 pm
Some steer by the stars. Shreve stars by the steer.
September 25th, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
“Sir Baby” is such a perfect name, it should win an award.
September 26th, 2010 @ 3:14 am
Your life. I want it. Trade with me for just one photo with that bull. You come here to dispatch the police and I will come there for some snuggle time. :D
September 26th, 2010 @ 9:12 am
I am most impressed that he is so gentle. I’ve been around beef cattle and milk animals, and they were friendly enough, if a bit skittish at times. Probably because I was a little kid and they were afraid they’d step on me…or I was very squeaky and hurt their ears!
Later in life, I had a sister in law who decided she wanted cows. Now, this woman was really obsessed with animals, she had four dogs three cats and a hedgehog already…and worked a full time job…and really didn’t have a clue how to care for cattle.
No one could convince her, though, and before long there were four calves in the field that stood between her house and ours.
Three of the calves were females, and one male. She named the male Ringo, and was quite besotted with him, constantly petting and brushing and trying to cuddle him. Ringo was a beef stock steer…
The three heifers died over the next year or so – from some kind of nasty cow flu; apparently no one caught the signs of them feeling badly and they just succumbed. The field was not fenced in sufficiently, either, and Ringo was always getting out and tromping around in our garden or blocking traffic on the road. Where we live is much more urban – it’s “country” by the standards of Mississippi but not by Texas standards. The roads are still paved!!
However, when Ringo “became a man,” all of my sister in law’s petting and cuddling meant nothing. He got vicious. She spent three hours locked in her own truck, while Ringo tried his best to batter down the front end of the truck. We still don’t know why he was attacking the truck, it was not running at the time. The very next week he got out of the field again, and came to our place. Then he started ramming into our car. We tried to round him up and get him back into the field, being as gentle as we could so as not to set him off.
He charged me and I spent three days in bed with a bruised knee – and it would have been worse if I hadn’t been quick on the dodge, he got my knee with only a glancing blow.
We had to have Ringo put down, and my sister in law never had any clue how things could have gone so wrong.
I wish she’d had someone like you to look to for advice. I think the key to Sir Baby’s gentleness is not just the cuddles but the fact that you’ve been very present in his life, spending time with him pretty much every day. I would imagine that you spend at least some time with each of your Farmily every day. That it’s much more the exception that you spend the day doing something else.
For my sister in law, I think she felt that she could treat Ringo just as she did her cats or her dogs, and ignore him when she didn’t feel like petting him – or just throw some feed in his trough and be done with it. She had no information about cattle and no inclination to learn…like so many these days, I guess.
I am so glad to be able to see and hear about your experiences. It makes it easier to get through my own days, because I can bring your photos to mind, and remember that there is still good in the world, and people that have hearts full of caring.
September 26th, 2010 @ 9:51 am
Hawk ~ Time, attention, and love are all important, but so is discipline, and this I think is where people get into trouble – they don’t consider discipline and they don’t set boundaries. (and discipline is not synonymous with violence)
Sir Baby (and all the Farmily) knows what is acceptable behaviour on HIS part. He knows that headbutting with TR is perfectly fine and fun but headbutting me is not allowed.
All relationships need clear boundaries – so clear that both parties understand them perfectly – so that no one is taken advantage of or hurt, even by accident. This applies to human relationships too.
September 26th, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
i am surprised Ricardo is not there with Sir Baby — was he on union break?
… or was he just hanging out with Frisco, instead?
September 26th, 2010 @ 3:34 pm
Hey Shreve, Im soooo inspired by your story I think what you have done is amazing and wonderful. I noticed in your store you have vegan necklaces, after growing so attatched to the animals have you stopped eating meat? I also have a silly question, I looooove loooove those boots you have on in the picture with the bull, what brand and kind are they?
September 27th, 2010 @ 11:32 am
That is the dearest thing to see. Hugs to you both from me.
September 28th, 2010 @ 12:41 am
I wana hug him like that!!!! Please! Please Pleeeeeease let me do??!!!
September 28th, 2010 @ 2:47 pm
AWWWWWWWWWWW i want to hug him!!!!!!!!!! =D
September 29th, 2010 @ 8:01 am
I love cows and wish I could have a couple. I stopped eating beef and pork years ago for the love of these animals.
I’m so glad he’s with you and you kept him. He is gorgeous!
September 30th, 2010 @ 12:05 pm
<3
November 1st, 2010 @ 1:38 pm
Shreve, love the pictures, BUT….did you buy THE boots?? Are those THE boots I see??