Windmill Farm Dairy: Sweet Pea

Save Our Cows!

OK.....I just finished seeing the movie Julia & Julie. The power of blogging saved Julie. I also just read an article on CNN where a homeless woman was saved and has turned her life around from blogging about her experiences. So I decided, that if blogging could do that for others, then it could do it for me. I decided that I would show pictures of our cows and tell a little story behind the picture. I also added a donation button to my site. People can donate one dollar (or whatever they want), via Paypal, to help us save our cows. Times have been really bad lately and we are barely hanging on. I figure every little bit helps and I will do (and am doing) everything I can to save our girls. They are not just our farm animals. We love each and every one of them and appreciate the hard work they do to keep our farm going. We provide the best comfort and food we can for them and it would devastate us to lose them. Therefore, I am not going down without a fight!! So, if you are so inclined to donate one dollar for our girls, we will do our very best to continue to hang on. I hope you enjoy the stories!!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sweet Pea

When our cows first arrived, there was one who stood out from the rest. She was a beautiful Holstein that was so friendly. The cows came numbered and she was # 5. She must have been a show cow. She was so gentle and friendly. We named her Sweet Pea. She loved to have her head and neck rubbed. She'd walk up to my husband and lay her head on his shoulder so he could rub her. She was a dominant cow and bossed around the others. She had a mind of her own and did everything on her own time. She was always the last cow to come in to be milked. I think she wanted to be last because she got extra attention that way. If we had a new mom or a problem cow, we would always put Sweet Pea beside her to calm her down.
I guess you are wondering why I talk about her in the past tense. That's because one day, several months after they cows arrived, we went up to milk and Sweet Pea would not get up out of her stall. We tried and tried and finally my husband was able to get her up but she was really unsteady on her feet. My husband and I were horrified. Not Sweet Pea. Of the 74 cows we had, Sweet Pea COULD NOT be injured or sick. We immediately put her in the maternity pen to keep her off the concrete and to keep her safe. She wouldn't lay down at all. She stood for an entire night. We knew she was injured. Finally the next day she laid down and that was the last time we could get her up. We had several vets come and see her, we gave her medicines, and we fed her by hand. We did this day after day. We just couldn't let her go. Finally on day 10, she looked at us with her big brown eyes and seemed to say it was time. We had the vet come out and put her down. We were devastated. She was only a part of our herd for a couple of months, but we were so attached to her. We wish we knew how she got injured and we wish we could have saved her. We still talk about her and we miss her. We wonder if we will ever have another cow like her. She touched our lives in the few months she was here and it's incredible how much we loved her.
We miss you dear Sweet Pea!