Curly’s Excellent Adventure

For us, getting out of town is never easy! The cows always seem to know when we are leaving. They inevitably create some crazy obstacle just to make our life challenging.

Last summer, we were getting ready to head to San Diego to enjoy the beach and our grandchildren. I noticed that something was amiss in our pasture. It was early in the morning and our cattle were on the west side of the pasture, intrigued by some happening off in the distance. As it turned out, there were some Black Angus cows that had moved into our neighbors pasture. This being the “season,” my Hereford bull, Curly, was extremely interested in what he was seeing and smelling on the other side of the fence.

A day later, I was relaxing on the beach with not a care in the world, when I got a frantic call from my friend who was taking care of our ranch. He said Curly had gone visiting the large ranch next to ours. Since it wasn’t very far, I wasn’t too concerned. But then several days went by, and still no sign of Curly. My concern grew.

I told my friend to go out to the gate and call Curly’s name with a hearty yell, whistle as loud as he could, then see if Curly would come back. He was somewhat skeptical but did as he was asked. Much to his surprise Curly came sauntering back with five Black Angus females galloping after him! These “ladies” included three cows and a couple of yearlings. You might think that this is the end of the story…  but it’s not!

Shortly thereafter, a Black Angus bull showed up on our property. They tussled for a day or two, but thankfully neither bull got hurt. The Angus bull finally left with half of his “women.” I am proud to say that the rest of his cows preferred to stay with their new “man” Curly. Eventually their ranch owner showed up and the rest of the cows were reluctantly herded home.

If only Curly could talk – what tales would he tell?