Page 16 - SuperCowboyFlipBook

brought him out a few scraps of food from the house, and he ate that, too. Pretty soon he was so full he couldn’t move. He looked like a milk can on sticks. In fact, he ate so much he got a stomach ache. “It looks like he’s foundered,” Daniel said, looking at Tippy, who laid there groaning while I stroked his head. But in an hour, Tippy was back up and ready to play. As Tippy grew over the next few weeks, he seemed somewhat confused. He apparently thought he was a calf, since he was raised with the calves. But I think he thought he was a special calf because I would take him places with me. When we let the calves out into a pen to romp, they would bunt each other. Tippy tried to bunt heads with a calf, but when their heads hit, Tippy toppled end over end. He was daffy for at least a day. Dogs don’t have thick, skull-butting kinds of heads. It wasn’t long before something else happened, and we realized we had to move him. One of our old cows had slipped in the barn, and was having trouble walking. My dad decided we would use her for a nurse cow. We would get her into a pen every day when it was time to milk, and turn some calves in on her. Tippy thought he was a calf, so it was only natural that one day he decided it was his turn to nurse. He worked his way through into the pen and got into position. The cow wasn’t paying any attention, as she was chewing the grain we had given her, but when Tippy latched on, she knew immediately that something was wrong. Calves only have bottom teeth in the front of their mouths when they are born. I know this because, after they are fed, I like to hold out my hand and let the calves suck