More Fence Repair & Fresh Disasters………..
Well, I didn’t go Hunting today. More necessary/mandatory/immediate fence repair was absolutely necessary.
A day late and a dollar short.
Here’s a disclaimer. This is a farm blog. Not all posts can be humorous. Some are heart-breaking.
With farms come births and deaths. Sowing and reaping. Planting and discing. Circles. Lots of cycles.
So, remember how I fixed the front mare’s fencing, but ran out of daylight and hadn’t fixed the back yet. I had located where the “hot” front pasture wires were not connected to the back top pasture wire.
Before I could even decide and/or pick going riding and having fun over continuing to fix and repair the fence……………………a fresh, ugly disaster erupted, exploded and unfolded.
Early this morning when the Wolfhounds first went outside, they decided to try the fencing……………..again.
What’s that quote? “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
My older daughter and my husband heard dogs barking this morning, but checked and saw nothing out of the ordinary……………………. (Heads up—–this doesn’t end well.)
When I bring the hounds in about a half an hour later, the first thing I notice out of the ordinary are their muzzle whiskers…………………..they are slicked back with blood, a lot of blood (like a gruesome greaser from the 1950’s). My heart sank.
I ran outside and started scouring the back yard. Really dreading what I knew I was going to find…………….
And I did.
A severely savaged dairy goat doe, named Skidmark. She was thoroughly mauled, but not to death (why couldn’t the hounds have been as thoroughly committed to their task and have killed her outright?).
Sigh…………………….
The poor old girl was an indescribable mess. But, unfortunately, still alive. There would be no coming back from this one. No chance whatsoever.
There was really no decision. It was already made. She had to be put down………….and quickly…………..for her sake.
And I did.
It’s never an easy choice. There wasn’t a choice. But, like I said, it wasn’t easy.
I was there when she was born, I was there when she gave us babies over the years, I was there when my children showed her as their 4-H Project at many State Fairs. And, I was there and instrumental when she died.
……………….We will continue to be there for her surviving baby, who now needs to be orphan-raised.
What makes me sad is how well I know how to do these things. But, the time for soul-searching is only a luxury to wallow in after the decision and the action is necessarily complete.
Like I said, it’s never an easy choice. It never should be.
I didn’t shoot the hounds. I wanted to. But, I didn’t. They were just behaving like they were meant to. But like I said in a previous post———-you have to respect the wolf-part as well as the hound-part. They are what they are.
What I did today was take out my frustration on this pathetic excuse of a neglected fence……………………………..livestock is only as safe as the integrity of the fencing that is protecting them……………………………..and this fencing is a sorry excuse of that. But I’m back now, and I’m mobile enough, so I will do it by myself.
My husband did give me a new electric-fence-voltage-tester yesterday. So, I don’t have to use my forehead or hands or other body parts anymore. Although I am sure I will…………………………inadvertently.
Today I wired the inside of the electric fencing in the backyard on 5″ extended insulators. That way any Wolfhound that wants to consider getting close enough to the pasture fencing to think about dragging another goat underneath, will be visited by a wonderful combination of joules and wattage (I hope they are standing on wet grass). It won’t kill them. But, I hope it will educate them PERMANENTLY.
I’m not trying to be melodramatic, just being painfully realistic…………….they have tasted blood now. We will have to be very vigilante for a very long time.
But this Alpha Bitch rules. My rules———-only. That’s just how it has to be on a farm…
It’s a tragic shame that that wasn’t an option for Skidmark.
