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Blogs by Linda Watson
Low Arvie first! 11/1/2010 11:43:06 PM
Hi
Just when I thought we had seen it all here at Low Arvie, we have another 'first'!
Yesterday R went out to tag the newest calf - Zinnia's new daughter Lady Zola - and he wasn't careful about where he caught the calf to put the tag in - right next to one of the most boggy places in the field. Zinnia is our oldest cow (14 years) and she had just calved the previous day. She came over to see what he was doing and waded up to her belly in the peat bog and became firmly stuck. What to do about that? We rang a friend who has a crane and a winch but couldn't get hold of him and so in desperation I rang the Fire Brigade. (I had heard Morgan tell stories of going to release animals.)
Well, within ten minutes we had the New Galloway fire engine and five hefty young men and one very pretty young lady here. They immediately began to make preparations to go down and help poor Zinnia and I began to feel that with such muscle power she would soon be free. Imagine my surprise when five minutes later the Castle Douglas fire engine with four more powerful men and two pretty girls arrived. Now we had twelve helpers! Three minutes later the Dumfries rescue appliance arrived with four more firemen aboard and finally a car with blue lights flashing drove into the yard - this was the big boss! Seventeen firemen at Low Arvie within twenty minutes of our call and us living out here 10 miles from New Galloway, twelve miles from Castle Douglas and sixteen miles from Dumfries! and all for Zinnia. Ten minutes later our friend arrived with his ropes and slings and they all trooped off down to the bog.
It's no surprise that with so many helpers Zinnia was soon free - a bit lame and very muddy and off she hobbled unconcernedly with her calf following behind leaving some peat covered humans to clear up.
Throughout the whole operation, she had been the least worried of them all and had just remained calmly stuck until they had freed her.
My problem then was to find enough cups and to boil enough water to make the rewarding cup of tea for all our helpers! But what could have been a disaster, turned out to be a very interesting morning at Low Arvie with a happy outcome for all concerned!
Picture will be on my website blog as soon as I have had time to upload it - www.low-arvie.co.uk.
