Bozette
Spring of 2001
Springtime brings calving and lambing which is a real neat
time. I love seeing all the little animals running around the ranch. This year I ended up with a bum calf. I didn’t pay much attention to it in the
beginning. I fed it and talked to
it. I thought that it was kind of
dumb. I called “him” Bozo. After a few days, I decided that I should
find out if it was a male or a female.
(My male bums go to market or in the freezer after they grow up, but the
females I get to keep.) I found out that
Bozo was a Bozette. She was not a
healthy calf in the beginning. In fact,
we almost lost her. We called the vet, he gave us some ideas and now she is
about 400 pounds. She comes to the house
for her bottle and then goes back to the shed.
Chip gives her the bottle and lets her chase it around the yard. Unfortunately, Bozette hasn’t learned to
bring it back yet. Last night, I saw her
coming to the yard. I ignored her and went downstairs to sew. In a while she
was down at the basement window grazing.
After it was quite dark outside (Chip was at a sale) I heard this
bawl. After my heart stopped pounding, I
shut off all the lights and turned on the yard light. She was standing at the door with a sad look
on her face waiting. I finished what I
was doing and went upstairs. It didn’t
take her long to come up to the kitchen door and start begging. Since I didn’t know where she had left the
bottle, I gave her the milk in an ice cream bucket. She finally figured out that that was some
pretty good stuff, but she still wanted her bottle. She is quite spoiled! We do need to wean her but…..
Bozette became very good at coming up to the house, butting
her head on the side of the house to let me know that she wanted her bottle.
After she drank her bottle, she would walk out of the yard and go back to
grazing. She drank from a bottle far
longer than she should have.
One time while feeding her a bottle, she inhaled and the
milk went down the wrong tube. She did
some swaying back and forth, but finally came out of the situation without
going down on me. I was a tad bit
nervous.
June is always branding time. I remember the year we put Chip’s brand R/D
on Bozette. She sulked for days and
would have nothing to do with us. It
broke my heart as I laughed at her attitude.
Actually, I remember several times when she gave us that
sulking attitude—the one that said, “I really am not a cow so please treat me
more respectfully like a person.”
As I went through 10 years of Life on the Ranch notes, I
realized that the fun stories of Bozette were in the first two years of her
life. I didn’t start saving my emails
until 2003.
October 25, 2003
We did preg testing yesterday. Yes, Bozette is to be a mother in April. That is good!
With cattle prices the way they are, I don’t think I could have
justified keeping her around another year if she wasn’t going to calve.
December 28, 2003
Chip and I went out to cake the cows the other day. I called Bozette and she came up from the
back of the group. The next day I
couldn’t find her. I called and
called. Chip said, “Dru” and pointed at
this cow by the back of the pickup.
Bozette was too busy eating cake out of the pickup to pay any attention
to me.
February 29, 2004
Last night Chip went out and brought the sheep in and the
cows followed. A couple of hours later Chip went back outside! There were about thirty head of cows in the
yard. He said that they acted like
little kids who had been caught doing something wrong. They just frolicked out of the yard with
grins on their faces. That is all but
one. You guessed it! Bozette thinks she owns the yard. Chip went out to her and started petting her
and talking to her. He asked her if she
was pregnant and ---she turned her head and gave him a great big, sloppy kiss
with her tongue. Later that night, I
gave Chip a kiss on his cheek when I remembered Bozette. I asked him if he had washed his face. He said “No!”
He is a Montana rancher; your guess is as good as mine!
March 27, 2004
Bozette came wandering in yesterday. Chip said that he set a trap for her. She is now in the corral in front of the
house so that we can watch her. Yes, we
will soon have a grand calf and Chip knows that this one has to live. After the storm we heard her moo. Believe it or not, Chip put on his shoes,
grabbed a flashlight and went to check on her.
April 2, 2004
Just to let you all know that Bozette is the proud mother of
a baby girl calf born on my mother’s birthday (today). We can hear her talking to her calf
constantly. Yes, I have taken pictures.
Chip had an easy time pulling the calf. He just walked up behind Bozette and pulled
the calf. The calf is all black. I need ideas for names. She may be a keeper as I’m sure she will be
quite tame.
April 4, 2004
Watching Bozette and Rozette is a lot of fun. Bozette is the typical new mother who is very
protective of her child. Rozette didn’t
mind for the first 12 hours, but now she wants to be where the action is. (They grow up so fast!) The action is right
next to the hay feeder where she can get stepped on. Bozette doesn’t like that at all. The only thing that distracts Boze from Roze
is cake. Boze went running for it. When Rozette found out she was alone, she
went nuts and set up a howl. Bozette
went running back to see what the problem was but didn’t get too concerned when
she saw us. They are like a three-ring
circus and they keep all three rings full at about the same time.
September 19, 2004
Bozette and Rozette were in the driveway to say good-bye to
me on Tuesday. Bozette knew that I
didn’t have any cake to give her so she wasn’t real excited about seeing me.
November 28, 2004
I went with Chip to feed the calves this morning. Tarzan was right there waiting for his more than
fair share. Rozette wasn’t too far
behind. Chip started the tractor and it
wasn’t long before the cows headed our way.
You guessed it! Bozette was the
first in line. She came up to me and then to Chip wanting to know where her
cake was. They will all be down at the
ranch within a couple of days as we left all of the gates open. Chip vaccinated the calves yesterday as
Floppy was looking a little ill. Rozette
didn’t appreciate the shot, but I guess she got over it.
December 26, 2004
Last Wednesday, I heard a cow in the yard. I looked out to see a black cow by the corral
gate looking at the water tank. I opened the door and said, “Bozette, is that
you?” She turned around and plodded over
to the door. She had one foot on the
step when I decided that she was thinking about coming in for a visit. I closed the door and she went another
direction. I am not afraid of her; I
just respect her size and the fact that she doesn’t understand English all that
well.
January 10, 2005
My sister sent a Santa hat for Bozette. I tried to put it on her. She would have nothing to do with it. She didn’t like the elastic going around her
neck. She threw it off and all the other
cows took a couple of steps away from it.
We quit before she got mad at us.
Chip said that Bozette is big enough to hurt us if she started to fight
us. I didn’t want to get her into that
habit.
January 30, 2006
Chip went over to feed this morning and I told him to bring
back a real good story. Bozette, Rozette
and Big Red along with the rest of the cows have been wintering over across the
road where we do our branding. They
should be back here to harass us next week, which means that I will have frozen
cow pies to drive over every morning.
The little babies will be arriving in April. Bozette will be having her third calf and
Rozette will be having her first one.
They look about alike and definitely act alike. Totally Spoiled!
February 2, 2006
Comparing Bozette to a soap opera:
The Bold and Beautiful:
I guess Bozette fits this category.
She is definitely bold when it comes to pushing her way into the middle
of food. Beautiful---For a cow, she is
beautiful with a very spoiled personality.
She is also beautiful to me because she helps line my pocket book with
cash.
April 2, 2006
(The second birthday of Rozette)
Bozette is a Grandma!
Rozette is a Mom. Beautiful black
calf! We haven’t checked the
gender. We woke up to a pile of snow,
which is almost gone at the moment.
Rozette went into the shed to have her calf. Smart Cow!
April 3, 2006
Bozette is a mom again.
Rozette has another sibling. Once
again, we haven’t checked the gender.
All four are doing well.
May 21, 2006
Yesterday, I helped Chip feed which means that I drive. We got to the center location of the cows and
I stopped. Just that quick I had a black
cow at my window. You guessed it, it was
Bozette. Then Chip said, “Well, Well who
do we have here?” You are right again, it was Rozette at his window.
October 7, 2006
Thursday was a very foggy morning, but we went out to get
the sheep in anyway. They were a little
difficult to find in the fog, but we managed.
Chip had the blue pickup and I had the red one. Things were going really
well until all of a sudden I heard a bellow and looked behind me to see a cow
charging after me. I said to myself,
“Bozette, is that you?” Her just as spoiled daughter, Rozette, quickly caught
up to me and I quickly rolled up my window so that I didn’t have her head joining
mine. Getting kissed by a cow has never
been one of my lifetime dreams. I
thought that she might want to help bring the sheep in, but she was definitely telling
me that she hadn’t had any cake in a very long time and she wanted to know when
she was going to get some.
October 30, 2006
We did preg testing this past week and Bozette and Rozette
are still in the running.
April 10, 2007
Just to let you all know that Bozette gave birth to a black
heifer this morning. She was born with a
pink ear tag in her ear. Chip said that
Bozette was out on the feed ground this morning when he brought the cows the
hay. All of a sudden she put up her tail
and took off. Those labor pains must
come quickly for some of those cows. No
name has been picked at this point.
April 11, 2007
Bozette has come in a couple of times for cake or hay but
she hasn’t brought her calf with her.
Just to let you know that Bozette is not a spring chicken or in this
case a spring cow anymore. She is now 6
years old, is starting to get old and won’t be with us forever. I am just
warning you all that someday we will all mourn the loss of Bozette, but I am
sure that she is a cow that will go down in history, at least the history of
the ranch second only to big Red. We
still have a few years to enjoy her personality though.
November 11, 2007
Yesterday, we left the gate open to the hay bales while we
were hunting. When we came back the cows
were in the field. I got out of the
pickup and Chip zipped around them. I
went to shoo one cow away from the bale.
She just kept circling the bale.
When I caught a glimpse of#55 on her ear tag, I knew what the problem
was. Bozette, the spoiled old thing,
doesn’t think she has to live by the rules!
April 21, 2012
Chip came in from feeding hay and asked for my help. He told me that Bozette had calved but he
didn’t think the calf had sucked. She
gets really big teats, which is caused by having too much mild. The calf can’t get her mouth around it. Chip decided to give them time.
We decided to head to Miles City and give Bozette time.
We came back home and had to deal with Bozette. She is as spoiled and crazy as ever. We put
her calf in the back of the pickup and she followed us to the house. Chip was
going to lure her out of the pasture with cake, but then he remembered #122 and
stuck to the pickup idea. We got to one gate that I couldn’t open so I held the
rope that held the calf when Jake decided to make an appearance. Bozette let him know what she thought of that
idea and put him back in the pickup. I
was standing by the pickup when she stampeded by me.
Chip was going to put her in the squeeze chute when he saw
that it needed to be welded. I picked it
up with the tractor and we took it to the shop.
He welded it and drove it back.
We finally had it ready for Bozette just as it was getting dark. We put her in the squeeze chute. This is the
only cow that can be lured into the chute with cake. I was feeding her cake and
Chip was milking her. All was going well until she lay down and wouldn’t or
couldn’t get up. Finally Chip loosened
everything up and we took her into the shed as it began to rain. I fed her cake while Chip got the calf to
suck.
Bozette is 11 years old this year. I don’t think she has too many teeth any more
as I didn’t get bit, just gummed. She eats like a pig when it comes to
cake. She shouldn’t have it as it gives
her more milk.
It is now 10 pm. The bums have been fed and Bozette and calf
are locked up for the night.
March 30, 2013
Wednesday was an exciting day for me. Chip’s first
words as he looked out the kitchen window were “I think Bozette might calve
today.” That is all I needed to get my jacket and camera and head
outside. I took lots of pictures, a video, and put a mile on my Nike
wristband waiting for the calf to be born. The calf now wears a pink ear
tag with the #55 in it. (Bozette, Rozette and ? all wear 55 tags. Chip
likes to humor me!)
We are about half way finished with calving. Chip
stayed home from church last Sunday to babysit the heifers as it was a chilly
day. He almost messed up! He watched Dr. Jeremiah and Dr. Stanley
on T.V. before going out to check the heifers. He found one chilled down
and brought it in the house to warm it up. Chip said that there was
something wrong with the bones or joints so it took longer than normal to stand
up. Also a heifer isn’t always “Johnny on the spot” to start licking her
calf to encourage it to get up. I watched a brand new calf yesterday from
the window and it seemed like forever before it even tried to stand up.
Bozette had her calf up in a few minutes.
The new mamas and their calves are out in the shelterbelt
for now. As I look out the kitchen window, every once in a while I can
see a streak of black or two streaks of black run by the gate.
Calves are so cute to watch as they play with each other.
October 15, 2013
After the second snow of the season, we let the cows and
sheep out of the shelter belt. At the
same time, Chip noticed Bozette coming down the lane to the gate. He let her in the corral and put her in the
horse barn. He said that she was in very
poor shape.
I went out to see her and talk to her. I really feel that she had come home to
die. She lived in the horse barn when I
first started to bottle feed her, almost died in the corral when she was a few
months old, had given birth to several calves in that corral, and she knew that
we would be there doing what we could to help her.
Chip and I handled her imminent death in different
ways. He did everything he could for her
to bring her back on her feet including putting a blanket over her. I spent two days crying for her, petting her
and talking to her. I am thankful that
she came home to gracefully die.
