Chapter Forty-six The First Calf

  The following days were spent leisurely, doing his daily tasks in an orderly manner, which could be finished in 20-30 minutes. He didn't even need to tidy up his own room, as he left it all to his mother when she came over. Every day, he would ride his scooter around the block a couple of times, and in the afternoons, he would either go fishing or take a nap, just going through the motions.

  I had just taken a little nap and was preparing to go home for dinner when I heard the sound of urgent hoofbeats coming over, turned my head, and saw Old Thomas riding Jefferson at full speed.

  "An, one of the cows is missing, it's that pregnant one from last time. I think she went to find a place to give birth. Nancy and everyone else have already packed up and are ready to go look for her." Gu An quickly put away his fishing rod, saddled up Bean Grass, gathered some things and put them on Snowflake's back, then called out to Wu Song as they galloped after Old Thomas towards their dwelling.

  When they arrived at the house, everyone was already ready. Even Brother-in-law and Father had mounted their horses, throwing Snowflake's reins to Sister, letting her help gather things up.

  "Alright, everyone split into four groups. Nancy, you're with Andrew's dad and brother to keep an eye on the cattle. Andrew and Wayne, each of you take a group. I'll go with Ann and we'll spread out in the woods to search. Remember to bring your lassos and guns. Let's move out now. Whoever finds something first, use the walkie-talkies and we'll head over right away."

  Wu An immediately dismounted and ran back to the house, took out his own revolver and holster, and strapped it around his waist. Then he locked the gun cabinet and ran out of the door. Seeing Wu An was ready, Old Thomas waved his hand to signal everyone to set off. Nancy led her father and brother-in-law to take care of the cattle, while Old Thomas and Wu An took three cow dogs and set off. Tiger Head and Garlic Head, who had been on a long vacation, and another dog followed the four men together to find the cows.

  Living in ease and riding on a flying bean sprout, Dou Cao asked Old Thomas: "How did you find out that one of the cows was missing?"

  Old Thomas said: "Every day when we gather the cattle, we count them one by one to see if the number is correct. We especially observe those cows that are about to give birth. Today, when we gathered the cattle, we found that one was missing. First, we ruled out the cows that were about to give birth, and then the bulls. Sometimes, the smell of other ranches' cows can attract the bulls, and some bulls will run to other ranches. Pregnant cows will leave the herd alone and go deep into the woods to give birth to calves. If everything goes smoothly, there's no problem. But if they have a difficult delivery, both the calf and the cow may not survive. So everyone needs to find them as soon as possible. If we can't find them tonight, the calf and the cow will be in danger. By tomorrow, you just need to look where the vultures are circling, and the cow's body is probably there."

  "Alright," said Ju An with a nod, "I understand why you brought the rope."

  "By the time a cow has a hard time calving, we use a pulley to pull out the calf," Thomas said. "If our luck is good today, you'll find the mother and see the first calf born on the range." With that, he spurred his horse and Jefferson took off at once.

  Juren nodded and followed Old Thomas to speed up the horse, and soon they arrived at the place where Thomas was grazing today. Then Thomas pointed in three different directions, and Wayne and Andrew rushed off in one direction each. Old Thomas also took Juren in another direction.

  When they had proceeded a short distance into the woods, old Thomas rode on horseback and said to Ju An: "The mother cow can walk about this far, then it will have to find its way along roughly the same depth." After that, he let Hu Tou lead the way in front.

  After searching for a while, the sky gradually darkened, and the forest was filled with tall trees, making it even darker. After half a day's search, Tiger Head still couldn't sniff out the mother cow's scent, and Thomas grew anxious, constantly urging Tiger Head to go faster, his footsteps quickening as well. Sometimes, even An could barely keep up with old Thomas' pace. A while later, old Thomas and An turned on their flashlights and continued searching in the forest.

  Just when everyone was getting more and more desperate, a excited voice came from the walkie-talkie: "Found it, found it, good guy, this guy is walking back and forth with a calf, what a beautiful little guy".

  Old Thomas grabbed the walkie-talkie: "Are you sure it's our cow?"

  "Wain smiled and said: 'Dad, I'm sure, we still have our mark on us, you'll know when you come over, let's go back to the ranch'".

  Old Thomas put down the walkie-talkie and clenched his fist, muttering to himself: "Thank God".

  Then he smiled and said to Thomas, "Let's go back and see the first calf born on the ranch."

  As they drove back, Old Thomas and Guan's mood improved a lot, urging the horse to trot, completely without the tense atmosphere of when they came.

  "Is it very dangerous for a mother cow to give birth to a calf in the woods?" asked Ju An with a smile.

  Old Thomas said: "In the past, the danger was that the cow had a difficult birth. Now there is another item added - wolf packs. When the cows are separated from the herd, they are most likely to be attacked by wolf packs. When giving birth, the cow will leave the herd and find a tree, rub against it to break the fetal membrane, and then the amniotic fluid will flow out, and the calf will be squeezed out. Then the mother cow eats the placenta and licks the calf clean. At this time, if they encounter wolves, it's dangerous."

  "Surely it doesn't happen every time a calf is born?" said Ju An.

  Old Thomas chuckled: "It's rare for this to happen, and cows usually don't stray far from the herd. Sometimes when you drive them back to count, there are more calves than expected. Today, I think one reason is that this cow has given birth to a calf for the first time, and another reason is that the cow lacks a sense of security."

  "That's good" Yu Rou nodded and said: "Also, I've been here for so long but haven't seen a wolf pack yet".

  Old Thomas replied, "In the past, wolf packs posed a great threat to the cattle and sheep in the pasture. The government encouraged their capture and killing, almost wiping them out. Now the cattle and sheep in the pasture are safe. Who knows what those bureaucratic dogshit officials would say about biological chains and such, reintroducing wolves again? Of course, it's not common to see wolves now because there's plenty of food in the mountains. You'll be able to see them during winter when there's no food, and they sneak into the pasture to steal cattle and sheep. However, the wolf packs are not as big as the 20-30 strong ones I saw when I was a kid. Last year, I only saw a pack of seven or eight wolves, and I think even those guys aren't a match for this bunch." He pointed at the tiger-headed dogs running alongside the horses.

  "Ha! You really think highly of these guys, don't you? I'm looking at them and they seem so big and powerful. Can they even take down a wolf?"

  Old Thomas laughed and said: "Two dollars bet! This winter if a pack of wolves dares to come, I bet they can at least leave two wolves behind."

  "Alright, two dollars."

  Old Thomas laughed and said: "Taylor and Anderson have both asked me if they can buy a few of the puppies from the ranch."

  "Strange, they never asked me."

  Thomas replied, "At that time they were not familiar with you yet, and I said that by next year our ranch will have at least two thousand more calves, plus the sheep, chickens, ducks and whatnot, who knows how many of these guys can give birth to at one time, if there are fewer, maybe even we ourselves won't be enough, so they probably didn't ask you".

  "Thinking of it, there are many local dogs at home, I should bring a few more next time, but forget it, it's troublesome. By the way, when these guys have puppies, I've already promised Jerry and Emily to give each of them one, as for Anderson and Sandton, let's talk about it later." Thomas nodded in agreement.

  Two people chatted and returned to the ranch.

  As I walked up to the gathered herd of cattle, I saw a group of people surrounding and looking at a calf.

  Everyone saw Ju An and Thomas coming over, Nancy smiled and said: "It's that little guy who is drinking milk."

  Following Nancy's pointing direction, Ju An found a little black calf, who was enjoying a delicious dinner by putting its head under the belly of its mother cow, sucking milk and then looking at Ju An and others with curiosity, wondering why these two-legged creatures were surrounding it. The calf licked its own nose, had big eyes, and its ears looked unusually large, which made it extremely cute.

  Ranran and Tongtong were holding hands, watching the exciting scene with Wusong. Little Jerry and Emily had already been taken home by Tyler, so the two little ones didn't dare to come out anymore. After a while, Ranran pulled Tongtong's hand and slowly approached the calf. The calf didn't move, looking at Ranran and Tongtong as they got closer. It took a few steps forward, nudged Ranran's small hand with its head, making Ranran excitedly exclaim: "He likes me!" She was overjoyed.

  Old Thomas also laughed and said: "Really is a sturdy little guy".

  "Let's have a drink tonight to celebrate the birth of our first calf," said Juan, smiling. The group then went back into the house, where his mother, sister and Nancy were setting the table. Juan went upstairs and brought down a bottle of Maotai, but Old Thomas shook his head when he saw it and said, "I can't stand the taste of this stuff, I'll stick to my whiskey."

  "Dad and brother-in-law laughed and said: 'You have this too? It's worth a lot of money domestically.'"

  "Nowadays in some big coastal cities on the west coast, you can buy them, unfortunately, we can't get tofu and bean curd rolls here, which I love to eat."

  Sister smiled and said, "I remember you love to eat beef, in the past when you were in college every time you came back on holiday, mom would prepare beef tripe and whatnot, saying that San loves to eat it, now you also love to eat tofu rolls".

  Ju An smiled and raised the wine glass in his hand, saying: "For the first calf of the ranch, cheers!" Then a group of people echoed: Cheers for the little calf!