the catcher in the rye

well, after two weeks of searching and driving through woods and fields (and catching nothing more than wood ticks), we finally caught our steer... with a lot of help along the way.

it was a week before anyone even saw the stupid thing, and then he was like this evasive ghost, appearing for a minute and then disappearing again. I called a few people, and really didn't get very far in finding someone who would be able to catch him. i called one guy with a tranqualizer dart, who thought he might do it, but seemed very non-committal. he actaully told me to just shoot this one, and start over... but maybe get two instead of one, so they wouldn't run away. yeah. right.

i finally was able to hire some guys who round up cattle on horseback. they came over with their horses and were finally able to catch him. he was wild and terrified and looked like a great, red, shaggy demon steer.

so at work, someone asks me what i did this weekend... and i told him. he laughs, and pats me on the shoulder.

"you're so full of it," he says, and rolls his eyes. "guys roping your steer on horseback... yeah, right".

he totally didn't believe me. no, i have a pretend steer, you moron.

at the moment, the subject of this post (the steer, that is) is safe and sound in the cattle trailer until we get his pen built. but he is a lot calmer than he was! he doesn't ram the walls when you come up the trailer at least. so that's a positive start.

at any rate, this should be an adventurous summer.

the colt kicked me in the butt the other day, when i tried to catch him. so we have some work to do. fortunately, with the big old butt i inherited from being a mom, it didn't hurt that much. see... big butts are good for something.

so, i'm off until i have another adventure. hopefully it won't involve me coming into contact with any hooves... or horns for that matter... or mice. no mice would be good.

hmmmm.... maybe i shouldn't be living in the country then. i'm such a dork. buying big shaggy cows that are half-mad is not exactly the way to ensure that you'll remain injury free.

this should be an interesting summer.