Well, ya made a believer out of me. I didn't think this mad cow stuff really existed until Tuesday. Went to the local sale and we just finished up the sheep and hogs and they got about ten minutes into the cattle when this straight bred Simmental cow come into the ring and she was a lookin for somebody to tag and bag. She chased the gate man behind his protection and was a blowin snot into his hippocket when he stabbed her with his hotshot. You talk about shit hittin the fan and all hell breakin loose! She went to the right and she went to the left and she went to the right again. She stopped and just looked at the auctioneer and he went into hiding under his mike table. The bleachers were full of people and the bottom row is four feet higher then the ring floor with a four foot steel fence with five cables. That's always been plenty of protection until last Tuesday.

She took two more sashays around that ring and said to hell with it and took her best shot. When she got her front legs above that top cable, I knew we were about to see somethin that people would remember for a spell. Then she got her hind feet on top of the concrete wall and all it took was a heave and a hoe and she was shakin hooves with the crowd! You never seen 75 year old farmers move so damn fast in all your life. Bout as fast as when wheat hit 6 bucks a bushel a few years back. Kids and women were a scatterin for the exits. She was targeting anything that moved fast and that was just about everybody. As mad as that damn cow was she still knew where the exit was too. When she hit those glass doors, the left door frame was a hangin around her neck when she went down Maple street and down to the levee. The local city police were gettin ready to slow up her progress with a 308 but the vet showed up and put her down with two tries with the tranquilizer gun. Two broken legs, one concussion, and a hell of a long line at the stockyard restroom, all because of one mad cow!

-- Boswell (fundown@thefarm.net), January 31, 2001

Answers

well if it ain,t ol" rootin-tootin son-of-a-gun-sho nuf--tuff ol hombre---bragioso----cudboy!!

-- al-d (dogs@zianet.com), January 31, 2001.

Boswell:

Now that was one mad cow. Reminds me of something that happened here a few years ago. A ranch about two counties north of us raises Bison [not some cross but the pure thing]. One fall this mature male [evidently after a letter from his retired relatives in NYC] decided to go south for the winter. He just started walking south. Nothing stopped him. He went through barbed wire, electric fences, picket fences, all kinds of fences. After a few days he reached the first major road. Evidently, by then, he was ticked-off. The farm family that saw him and called the sheriff said that he was standing in the middle of the road pawing the pavement and snorting. Before the sheriff got there this semi came over the rise in the road.

He charged it head-on. Killed the bison and completely destroyed the truck. The driver, who by some miracle survived unhurt, said:" I have never been so scared in my life: that was some mad buffalo".

Al-d needs to add mad Bison to his list.

Best Wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), January 31, 2001.

Z, I've got another one that really happened. I didn't see it but it left a lasting impression on us young ones. I guess grandad was coming back from Lewiston in his Model T and back then all the roads were gravel. Well he was about 4 miles from home and the neighbor's hogs were out. Grandad come over the hill and seen em in the middle of the road and hit the brakes. He slid about 200 feet on that gravel and they all got out of the way except the big boar that weighed close to 400 lbs. He hit him doin about 25 mph but them hogs are so solid and compact that it pushed the radiator back into the fan, bent the steering arms and the frame and worst of all broke a whole case of moonshine that was in the seat beside him.

-- Boswell (fundown@thefarm.net), January 31, 2001.