One sunny Saturday morning, we noticed that Nugget, Nilla, and Caspian had broken free from their pen. We didn’t give it much thought since the animals had never gone far before. We have now realized that this ended up being the worst decision we could have made.
When the time came for us to do the barn chores, we assumed we would get the animals back into their pen. However, when we got outside, we soon found that Nugget, Nilla, and Caspian were nowhere to be seen. We searched the field, the barn, and even the bush, but we just couldn’t find them anywhere. After about 30 minutes of searching, we checked the road. It was there that we found abruptly stopped hoofprints and tire tracks. Our first thought was that they had been stolen. At first, that idea made sense — it was the time of year when livestock theft was common, our cows had never wandered off before, and there were tire tracks on the grid road.
We then checked some local Facebook groups to see if anything had been reported. Nothing had been posted, so we went to bed that day wondering if we would ever see our beloved Nugget and Nilla (and Caspian) ever again.
That was until the next morning, when we got a call from our neighbour telling us that she had spotted our animals hanging out with her cattle. Luckily, there was a fence between them so they didn’t get mixed up. And just like that, my peaceful morning was painfully interrupted by a spontaneous retrieval mission.
Our first attempt consisted of me and my mother walking in the ditch, keeping the livestock pressed against the fence so they didn’t run off, with my father quietly following in the truck. This attempt utterly failed, with the cows and Caspian running all the way back to the wrong herd, leaving us with tired legs and several dozen mosquito bites.
Our second attempt (the one that ended up working) was grueling, exhausting, and even near fatal — for our calves, that is. This plan had the three of us walking through over a kilometer of open field, herding two Highland cows and one sheep with long sticks, just how they did it back in the old days. Finally, after 20 minutes of walking and waving sticks in the air, we got the livestock back home safe and sound.
You know, I still wonder if getting the animals back from thieves would have been easier than what we went through. All in all, I believe we learned a valuable lesson that day: if you see your animals out of their pen, get them back in confinement immediately — and never skip leg day, of course.