Red, Green, & Blond
Eli & Rue
I’ve been getting a bunch of questions on The Daily Coyote about Eli, and why he’s not in photographs much anymore, and this is why. He runs all night and sleeps all day. All day. Charlie sleeps all night and plays all day so there’s not that much overlap, but when Eli does grant Charlie the thrill of his presence, Charlie is as submissive and worshipful as ever. Both Charlie and Chloe defer to all the cats, actually.
The Farmily began with just Eli and me, and he has been so chill with all the animals who have moved into his house ~ saintly, really ~ and if he doesn’t want to model, I don’t make him model. That’s it!
Random Status Report
The trickery worked. We jacketed the calf, which (skip to the next paragraph if you’re squeamish) means skinning the dead calf and putting that hide onto the orphan calf ~ four holes are cut in the corners of the hide for the orphan’s legs to pass through; this keeps the hide anchored across her back.
Mama cows know their calf through sight and sound but confirm it through scent, and jacketing confuses the mother enough to let the new calf nurse. Once the orphan calf has its new mother’s milk coursing through its body for a day or two, the calf begins to smell like her, becomes hers, and the jacket can come off. This mama is wholly devoted to her new baby.
Oreo, NICU baby, is the princess of the herd. One would never know, looking at her now, how tenuous her first days were. She’s strong and playful and curious, chasing chickens, ringleader of the calves.
I made this, following the cold recipe she links to near the bottom of her post and it is AMAZING, like distractingly good, like I was walking into walls because the only thing my consciousness could register was the deliciousness of shrub in my mouth.
My Giant
Snippets: The Agony & The Ecstasy
I’ve been writing.
Manic stretches where my pen can barely keep up with my brain alternating with staring at a blank page for hours and doodling in the margins.
A calf was born strange, there was something structurally off about her, her legs were weird and she couldn’t hold her chin up to nurse. So I’ve been milking her mother (NOT FUN. CHEATING ON DAISY!) and bottle feeding her, and trying to teach her how to nurse on her mom. She was such a sweet little thing. She died today. I think it was inevitable but I still can see her face so perfectly in my mind.
Another cow had twins last week and, as is customary, only took to one calf and abandoned the other. That motherless calf is also on the bottle (Daisy’s milk) but we are hoping to introduce her to the mother that is now calf-less. It takes a bit of trickery but results in happy pairs.
Fingers crossed.
Off to go feed cows.
And the Farmily (all are well).
And then write more (or doodle).
MY NEW BOOK!
More, Elsewhere
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