Cause and effect
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy
by Julie Carter
If you have not been in the cattle business, owned a cow dog or been married to a team roper, you may not believe this.
You know, however, that I am a basically truthful person and only arrange the facts when it seems appropriate.
Any
head-of-household person who has managed to live a cattle-free life
should be aware though that if ever anyone in the house would happen to
take up team roping, it would encourage better housekeeping.
There is a connection to that train of thought and here it is as told to me.
"Today
we went up the road to buy some fresh roping cattle. We sorted through
what the Corriente man had on hand and came up with six that were more
or less suitable
"We finally got them all in the trailer and set
out for home quite happy with our purchase. Once at our pens, we set all
the gates with double-baling wire applied for safety and let these
little darlings out into a very small catch pen.
"I have made the
same mistake thousands of times and it never fails to result in
disaster. I forgot to secure my cow dog. Ritadammit, the newer version
of her name, takes her job seriously and decided to break the new steers
into the routine around this outfit.
"Ritadammit becomes
exclusively my dog at feeding time and any time she needs to be caught.
Head cowboy's part is to yell at the top of his lungs, in very clear
language, while I gather my pet.
"I got a little exercise in the
pursuit but finally put Ritadammit in the cattle trailer. Now, this was
a safe place for her. She was out of harm's way, couldn't get out and
we could finish what we had started with the very wild and frightened
new cattle.
"All was going quite well until I let Ritadammit out
of the trailer. Completely insulted by her imprisonment, she made a
beeline to the house.
"I thought that would be all right. She
could just go sulk by herself while I washed out the trailer. These
cattle were completely un-recovered from a current bout of scours. Took a
while to clean the trailer but I got it done.
"When I went to
the house, I saw the problem. It seems that Ritadammit had gone to her
'sulk' through the kitchen, through the dining room, through my office
to see if there were any snacks on my desk, down the hall, into the
bedroom and was lying in the middle of the bed.
"While in the
trailer, she had become intimately involved with a good bit of the
second-hand grass from the cattle. Actually, she had it on her feet, all
over her coat and in her ears. This she had managed to track all
through the house, on the tile and carpet and was doing a pretty good
job on the bedspread.
"Consequently, the remainder of the day
was given over to shoveling out the worst of it and mopping. I have to
be honest and say it needed it anyway.
"This is just a word to
the wise for people who have not been in the cattle business. Those of
us who have will understand that this is no big deal.
"Just another day in paradise."
© Julie Carter 2007
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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