Land Walrus.
My oldest son has decided that our Jersey cow, Faith, looks like a walrus. He may be right.
Why?
- She’s bald
- She’s huge
- She waddles
- She even has whiskers
All she needs is tusks and a flipper.
If you are bored, intrigued, or have nothing else to do. Continue reading about the Walrus Exhibit:
1. Bald Cow
Faith get’s a beautiful, thick, brown, winter coat every year. When the days get warmer she drops this coat like a hot potato. She does not shed gracefully like other animals at our homestead. She does not have a summer coat waiting under her winter one. One day she’s furry, the next she’s bald.
When her summer coat arrives it is always a gorgeous, golden-blonde color. Unfortunately, she doesn’t grow her blonde fur while she’s shedding her winter fluff. There’s a 5 week bald season. It’s not pretty.
She’s slick and smooth. Just like a walrus.
2. Huge Cow
Huge is not the word.
I don’t know why, but our oldest cow does not have any self-control. Faith’s the one on the far left…..the one about to explode.
The blimp with legs.
The land walrus.
Cows are supposed to be self-regulating, unlike horses who will eat until they founder. Cows are supposed to stop when they are full, lay in the pasture and chew their cud. Not Faith. If there is something to be eaten, it must be eaten.
We have raised several cows. Henry, Crumple, Rosie, Guinevere, Faith. Faith is the only one with an eating disorder. She is the only one who can not be trusted in a lush pasture.
Maybe it is because she used to live with 120+ other Jerseys and had to fight for food.
Maybe it’s because we have really yummy grass.
Maybe it’s because she needs to go to overeaters-anonymous.
Whatever the reason, all I know is she can not be trusted around food. She is trying to die.
In winter we can control this easily. We provide her food twice a day and can see that she isn’t given too much. In spring and summer the world is her buffet and we have less control over how much she eats.
We do our best to limit her access to too much pasture, and limit her time on pasture, but inevitably she ends up looking like… a ball.
Oh my! Oh dear! Someone call the vet! The Cow’s gonna pop!
It can be very frustrating. We try so hard to keep her healthy and in good condition – then she does this to herself. She just doesn’t know when to stop.
DH says she’s well fed.
3. Waddling Cow
The waddling is a product of the eating disorder and the large baby she is carrying. The good part about the waddling is that she isn’t ‘Frisky the Wonder Cow’ anymore and we don’t have to run for our lives while scooping her field and run-in. More on Frisky here.
The good news is that she is waddling around just fine. She gets up. She gets down. She moseys around the place as usual, with a little more swing in her step.
3. Whiskers
Yes, she has whiskers.
In the winter, her whiskers get frosty. Just like a walrus.
Really, she’s the whole package: bald, huge, waddling, and whiskery……….
All she needs is tusks & a flipper and we’d have ourselves a milk-producing walrus.
My brother already says his sister (that’s me) lives at a petting zoo. Now it’s complete with a Walrus Exhibit.
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XO,
Candi
