realized that it wasn’t any use; she was old and the freezing cold water had made her weak.
I knew I was
going to have to go get the tractor. I left the pickup with my sleeping daughter and quickly ran the whole way to the barn where the tractor was. As I ran my cov- eralls got stiffer and stiffer. I knew they were freezing from the water. I knew I had to hurry or the cow would be dead. I knew I was as cold as my freezing coveralls, but with the adrena- line running through me, it didn’t register at that moment that I could be in danger of pneumonia. Within fifteen minutes, I was back to the trough with the tractor and a couple chains prepared to lift the cow out of the trough. I fastened a chain around her girth and was able to lift her out and lay her down on the ground near the trough. I quickly unhooked the chain and tried to get her to stand. She fought me a few times then gave up. I knew that I had to get her dry or
she was going to freeze to death. Hastily I searched the pickup for towels or any- thing to dry her with. No luck was mine to be had.
So I took off my jacket and started
rubbing her — hard — with it. After a few moments she began shivering and I knew I was getting a little warmth back into her body.
It wasn’t long, however, until my
jacket was soaking wet and starting to freeze from the water. I tossed it aside and took off my sweatshirt and started rubbing her with that. She shivered more violently.
The cow tried to stand once and then
fell back down again. By this time I had been working on her about twenty min- utes to a half hour. I rubbed her legs and tried to get her dry but it wasn’t long be- fore my sweatshirt was saturated and also starting to get hard from the wind and freezing cold.
I tossed it aside and took off my
T-shirt. I was able to get the main part of her body dry to the touch and was feeling like I was making progress finally. Again
34 ROCKY MOUNTAIN RIDER • FEBRUARY 2013
www.rockymountainrider.com RMR
I knew I had to get the cow up and moving quickly or she wasn’t going to stand a chance with the temperature dropping.
I worked on her legs trying to get more blood flowing to them. I could hear her grinding her teeth and knew she was in pain, the good thing about her being able to feel pain was that I knew she was alive and had some feeling in her body at that point.
Before long
my t-shirt was soaking wet and not doing much good. Darkness was setting in as I slipped off my
thermal wool undershirt. I rubbed and worked on her legs frantically. I knew I had to get the cow up and moving quickly or she wasn’t going to stand a chance with the temperature dropping. About twenty minutes later, the cow stood up and started back towards the herd slowly and unsteadily. I stood watch- ing her, proud of myself for what I had done. I gathered up my wet clothes, tossed them onto the flat bed and climbed in to the truck as I realized I was shivering my- self.
“Mom, where are we?” came the
sleepy voice of my daughter who had just woken up beside me on the seat. I looked over at her and smiled
despite my shivering. “Checking cows, Sweetie,” I said, as she opened her eyes and looked at me. She wiped her eyes and gave me a
strange look and innocently asked. “Why are you wearing only a bra?”
“Cold Cow” is excerpted from
award-winning author Dawn Nelson’s A Cowgirl Always Gets Even. Published by Gray Dog Press 2012.
www.GrayDogPress.com.
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