Animal Updates

here is the host for table number two

Carol  ·  Aug. 10, 2009

Percy on Parenting....

Percy came to us as a young rescue calf. He was purchased at the auction by some young people as a practical joke on their friend. He found himself tied to a tree with a noose around his neck and there he started to slowly starve to death because no one knew he still needed to be bottle fed.

A friend sent us the picture and posting from Craigs List that was placed by the people who wanted to get him out of their back yard. And Percy became our first cow SAINT and what a learning curve that was!

We tried to become his parents, and we did a pretty good job of raising a baby cow who wasn't sure if he was a human or a dog. It finally occured to us that Percy needed to know he was in fact a cow, so when he was about six months old, we found him a real cow mom.

Jeanette was so lovely and gentle and kind and...old. She was almost 20 when she got here but she still knew how to care for a lonely teenage boy. Watching the two of them always together, licking each other or laying quietly in the shade, we knew thà t we had done right for Percy with finding him a real cow friend.

When Jeanette died, barely year later, Percy was once again lost and alone so we found him his second mom. Spot was different than Jeanette was, while she took `Percy right under her wing, she was distrustful of humans. She was a 20 yr old dairy cow, who came from a good farm where she had lived her entire life and she wasn`t so sure about these new humans and took her time getting to know us well. by the time she died at 21, she would finally let me touch her face, and she like Jeanette had been a very good mom to Percy and helped him grow into a very fine steer.

Percy was again devastated by his second mother loss in only a couple of years so we in our ultimate wisdom went looking at the auction for a new old mom for him. Sometimes there is a hand that guides you, it moves you to a different way and we came home from the auction with 2, one day old, very sick calves and Joy. Percy suddenly stopped being our baby and became the benevolent leader of his new herd.

Joy is a young 2 yr old heifer and Percy is totally and completely in love with her. She is his Juliette, she is the new foster mother to Emily, the only surviving calf. Percy has learned to be a very good Dad and cares for them both really well. He was so distressed when Todd the other little guy passed away, that he stood at the gate and he bawled and bellowed til we humans were all blinking back tears.

Percy knows the value of friendship, he know what nuturing means. He knows what it is like to be a calf all alone and tied to a tree and now he knows what it is like to be part of a family. Percy is a good partner for Joy and a good parent for Emily, he was lucky enough to be taught how to care for another by Jeanette and Spot, two outstanding mothers to him.

Percy welcomes you to his table and hopes you will visit him in person one day. He would like to introduce you to his beloved family and maybe if you dont mind too much, lick your arm and suck on your hair.

Comments

Carol

one day pam, maybe you will cross the big divide and percy can helpfully exfoliate you too!

Carol

percy likes to exfoliate his friends..it is a service he really enjoys! see you again soon greg...glad we didn't scare you away!

Pam

Great job Carol! Precious Percy... I would love to meet Percy but we have a problem of about 2500 miles between us. Maybe someday... Good luck at the fund raiser!

Greg

Great biography, Carol. You have a wonderful way with words. I got introduced to Percy's tongue tongue on my shin the other day. Certainly an interesting experience, and not one that I'm anxious to repeat. I'll stick to stroking his head.

Hope to be back this coming weekend.
-Greg