6/26/24

Today was one of those days where if you had not been here to witness it, you might not believe it. It was not a fun day. It was quite crazy. It is farm life and you never know what is going to happen. Accidents do happen, but this was something that I cannot even figure out how it happened. 

I got home late. When I did get home, Ronnie was in a panic. I had no idea what was going on. Ronnie was glad to see me because we had an incident and he had no idea how to fix it. Then he said something about Willow’s foot was in a lead rope. I did not understand since Willow did not have a halter on and there was not a lead rope. I was confused, but headed over to where I saw Willow on the ground. Mattie was right next to her and Jeb was on the other side of the fence, but was giving support to Willow and Mattie. As I got closer to them, I saw Willow’s foot was caught in the halter Mattie was wearing, the foot was stuck in the loop where a lead rope would go. How did that happen? We will never know how that happened, but it did happen. Ronnie had roped Willow’s back foot and had her on the ground to try to get to Mattie and get the halter off, but Mattie was not having it. He could not go anywhere with Willow tied to the fence and her stuck in his halter. I was able to go over and pull off the halter and Mattie ran off. His nose and chin were rubbed raw from the incident. Willow would not get up. She stayed on the ground. Ronnie got down to try to console her. Her foot was rubbed raw by the halter. They could not have been like that for a long time since her foot was not any worse than it was thank goodness. She stayed on the ground for a long time. I am sure she was hurting and she was traumatized, but it was so hot out and she was on the ground, not getting up. I took the water hose and poured water on her to cool her off. That usually would have gotten her up off the ground, but not tonight. I was concerned.  Ronnie got a halter on her and he and I tried to pull her up multiple times, but she was not having it. I finally looked inside mouth and it was so dry she could not move her tongue. I got the water hose out and got some water into her mouth. At that point, she was starting to sit up. I poured more water on her to cool her off more. She was able to get herself up off the ground. She was able to walk, but she has a limp. Ronnie and I decided to get her into the pen on her own to let her leg heal. She did go in there. She was able to eat and drink. I checked on her later and she was laying down relaxing.  Things could have been much worse. This was some kind of freak incident. It all worked out though. Willow is okay. Mattie is okay. 

I did notice Luna was back with the chicks. I guess she decided she did not think they were ready to be away from her. 

When I went to check on Willow, I also was out to water the garden and different things. I looked over on the roof of the barn and there sat a cat. I am pretty sure it is that gray cat which I am calling Sterling.