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Visually-challenged bovine thrives |
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By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition |
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November 28, 2002 -- The first time I saw her, three years ago, I cried. "Don't worry, baby, she doesn't know she can't see," said my husband, Ed. Contained in a "make-shift" pen, until we could make plans for the real thing, Miss Helen was walking in circles and swinging her head from side-to-side, having no idea where she was, except that it wasn't the home she'd known. Ed is a soft touch for any animal in need, and when a fellow worker had a calf born without eyeballs, he looked to Ed to see if he was interested. Thus we came to own a beautiful cow named "Miss Helen," after Helen Keller, of course! She was sired by a Simmental bull and her mother was part Brahman, part Hereford and part something else. The veterinarian said the missing eyes were just a "fluke" of nature. While she has long, normal eyelashes, where her eyes should be, there is only another layer of pale hide. After the initial shock wore off, we went to work preparing a pasture where Miss Helen would be safe, and yet have room to roam like a normal cow. Fortunately, we have enough acreage to allow us to give her plenty of roaming distance, and it wasn't long before she learned her way around the entire pasture. She can even find the gates and learned to walk into the barn at feeding time. Eventually, she even had her own tire swing to play with. We've laughed that she may be part rabbit, since her ears perk up the minute she hears us ... especially, Ed ... since she adopted him as her "mother" figure right off the bat. He will call her to him, and she will slowly make her way, following his voice, until she finds him. She loves to have her back scratched, and as the months went by and she grew larger and larger, you had to be careful not to get in her way when she was on a mission! Our vet said even though Miss Helen was blind; it did not mean her off-spring would be. We decided to take that chance, since she had been such a mild-mannered heifer. Although we planned to have her artificially inseminated (and the vet had made one attempt when she was about a year old), we have never been sure that a young bull we had was not the father of her first calf. As Miss Helen continued to grow in girth, before the birth of her first calf, we became more and more attached to her, and our three grandchildren loved her. She was like a big, family pet, and still is. Last Thanksgiving weekend, Miss Helen gave birth to a little heifer, with no assistance required, and in a very short labor period. Since it was Thanksgiving time, our oldest grand-daughter, Julia, 6, named the new calf Grace. From the very first minutes after birth, Miss Helen was a perfect mother. Afraid she would accidentally step on Grace, we held our breaths each time she stepped around the calf, lying on the ground. It was truly something to witness. Miss Helen would hold her foot up in the air while she determined just where Grace was lying, then ... gently ... place her hoof beside the calf ... never on her; never hurting her. It was only a sign of what kind of a mother she would be, and until Grace was weaned and moved to the farm in the country, Miss Helen was there to protect her from other animals, chickens, or the mean "Tom Turkey." Eleven months after the birth of Grace, we were "blessed" with another calf by Miss Helen. This time, it was a little bull. The pregnancy and birth mirrored that of Grace, and the mothering is the same. At about 1-month-old, Bevo Baby is a perfect little calf. Miss Helen always is aware where he is in the pasture and/or barn. Although Ed had prepared a warm, dry hay bed for the birth, Miss Helen chose to give birth under a tree, in knee-deep mud, during the last heavy rains in South Central Texas. After a little help from Ed and son, Trevor, Miss Helen and Bevo Baby were back inside the warm barn, in clean hay, and the mothering process began anew. Another year ... another baby ... another blessing for our special pet, Miss Helen. |
