Somebody's Hamburger

"You do realize that she's gonna be somebody's hamburger by the time you come up with a name, right?"

That's what Jared just said about this little girl:

Heartless.

Soooo very very heartless.

He even suggested that we name her "Hammie" the other day. Short for hamburger. It was at that moment that I decided I needed to train her to charge on command.

Don't tell Jared, though. I want it to be a surprise...

I don't know what my deal is but I've had the hardest time naming this calf. We've had her just ten days and she's already gone through at least ten names. My sister suggested we name her Penny last week and I loved it. Penny it was! For approximately 2.5 days. Then I decided that it didn't really fit. Tonight I came up with Mylee and thought it was soooo cute, but then Jared had to ruin it for me by reminding me of Miley Cyrus. Annoyingness.

So I guess I'd better just stick with Penny since I'm apparently the most indecisive person in the whole entire universe. At least when it comes to calf names. And dog names now that I think about it. Poor Jessie had serious identity issues the first few days I had her in Utah. She was called all sorts of names before I finally settled on Jessie.

Jessie and Penny are still trying to figure each other out. Penny has kicked Jessie a few times and Jessie has snapped at Penny for every kick she's received. They just don't understand how the other one likes to play. They had a good stare-down the other day that I think helped their relationship a little bit.

They sat like this for a good 15 minutes. Just staring. And staring. And staring. Then they both just kind of walked away. Jessie never had a problem with the other calves we had back in April.

Our first calf was Joey.

His mom died shortly after he was born. Thankfully Jared and I happened to find her about a day after she died. As Jared was checking her tag, I noticed some ears poking out of a hole about 30 feet away. I thought it was a deer at first, but it was Joey. We weren't sure if he belonged to the cow we'd come across or if he belonged to another cow, so we left him for a day and checked on him again the next afternoon. He was still laying in the same hole so we brought him home.

I immediately fell in love with him and would usually spend a good 30-45 extra minutes with him every time I went out to feed. He was so big and awkward and playful and friendly and I felt bad that he was alone most of the day...so staying and playing whenever I could made me feel a little better about him being all alone.

A few days after we got Joey, Jared's brother, Parker, brought us another calf.

Meet Mister.

Mister's mom was alive and well, but she showed no interested in being a mom despite the time that Parker spent working with the pair. I was thrilled to get another calf cause that meant that Joey would have a friend to play with all day! I was worried that Joey would be a bully to Mister cause he was so much bigger, but it ended up being the other way around. Mister was a bully to Joey...and to me! He was always nice to Jessie, though, and didn't seem to mind when Jessie would start licking the calf poo off of him. Gross, I know. Jessie loves that stuff, unfortunately. And no matter how much I get after her when she starts eating it, she still does it. I think my anger only encourages her. Little brat.

Jessie, Joey, and Mister loved to play with each other. I'd get them all running together and then just sit back and watch...and hope that Jessie didn't get trampled.

Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for them, Parker eventually found new moms for both Joey and Mister. I was really sad the first few days they were gone and wasn't any fun to be around. Poor Jared had to deal with a big baby for awhile. But then I got to go visit the calves with their new moms a week or so later and it made me so happy to see how well they were doing. And it made me even happier that they both remembered me enough to walk up to me and let me pet them goodbye. Their new moms sure weren't happy about it though. I'd be lying if I said they didn't scare me a little bit...

It'd be nice to see little Penny get a new mom, but you won't hear me complain if she doesn't. She hasn't warmed up to me quite like the other two did since she's older and a bit more wild, but we've come a long way. It no longer takes both Jared and me to pin her down and force her to take her bottle. So that's a big improvement. She's still a little too timid to play like the others did, but I'm not giving up yet.

She's at least started to suck on my fingers, which is disgusting but also adorable.
And she let me hug her briefly once before freaking out.

So it's only a matter of time until we're best buds.

I hope :)