We are sort of having an "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" week here at Siren Song. On Thursday night we got the fantastic news that the mini Jersey cows were arriving from Illinois. We were a little concerned as they had been picked up 9 days earlier, as it's only a 30 hour trip door to door. Then we get a call and the hauler announces that he can't bring the cows to the farm so he will be stopping at a gas station where we can come pick them up. A gas station?! So we beg and plead with our friends to find someone with a trailer to go and get them with us. (Our trailer is in need of repairs at the moment.) So we arrive at the gas station and the cows are in a huge double-decker semi with a ton of Black Angus bulls. They are ankle deep in cow shit and totally skin and bone.
        So, we load them up and bring them back to the farm where we spend hours oohing and ahhing over them while they gorge themselves on hay and water. At about 8:30 we notice that one of the cows is not really eating and keeps laying down and looking uncomfortable. While the other two are happily munching away in the stall. We start to get really nervous when she starts coughing and gets an extremely boogery nose. So we call a vet and they tell us to come pick up some shots and she should be fine in the morning, they really don't want to bother coming out to check on a cow. So at 11:30 Aby and I drive almost all the way to Portola and pick up cow shots. Which we decide to give her in the morning as she is resting peacefully when we get back.
     Unfortunately, the next morning she is still feeling badly. We give her the shots and then leave to run to the store to pick up some electrolytes. When we get back she is standing in the yard with her tongue out, rhythmically shaking her head. It appears that she cannot stop. We call the vet again- they again say that its just a cow and they will come out in the evening if it's still a problem. The shaking gets worse and she starts foaming at the mouth. We call every vet in town. No one will help. We finally find a lady and she rushes out to see what's going on. She is NO help at all. She doesn't know what's wrong, she has never heard of the medication the the other vet gave us. She gives her a shot of Vit. C and pumps her full of water and leaves. So now we are alone with a cow that is convulsing so hard she can no longer stand up. We are black and blue and covered in blood from trying to help her but a 300 pound cow that can't control her muscles is helpless. Aby gets back on the phone to try and find another vet to come help us. The convulsions get worse. I am on the ground holding onto the cows head and telling her it will be all right. All of its muscles are going at once and it is running except it is on its side. We are terrified. I am yelling to find someone to come put the cow down. Aby is frantically searching for help. At 3:00 the cow dies. Finally. At 3:15 the best vet in town gets our message and calls us back. We make him come out and check the other cows- who have started coughing. Long, long story short. Aby takes the dead cow back out to the vet in Portola, in the back of the truck. Due to a small misunderstanding they perform the autopsy in the back of the truck . We end up shelling out 500.00 for them to get it out of the truck and dispose of it, you know, not that they have cut it open. 
           We spend days sitting with the other two cows. Of course, a storm blows in and it snows. We get heat lamps and hang them in the stall.  We make the vet come back to give them a second round of antibiotics for their coughs. He assures us that they will be fine.
     We call the hauler, he says they were fine on the truck. We say they were not. He says he offered us insurance, we say he did not. We send him the autopsy reports that say she has had pneumonia for 6 days and that it moved into her brain. He refunds us the money for just the dead cow. The previous owner of the cow is devastated.
   And we, we learned some very hard lessons this week.

          These last few months have been a challenge for us here at Siren Song. We lost our beautiful Grandmother in March. The strange Reno sun shone for her last days and then came the snow, blanketing the city in white for her funeral. We miss her terribly but know she was freaking thrilled to go so we're not too sad. At that same time we received word that our offer on the land we hoped to make the new home of Siren Song was refused. Was refused the word I was looking for here? Nope, totally ignored would be more correct I think. We didn't even get an answer to our offer but we figure that after 5 weeks of no response that no answer is the answer we are getting. Which is unfortunate as our three cows are on their way from Illinois as we speak and there is no home for them to go to. The Alpacas are waiting to be picked up and the sheep will be born any day now. But we know it will all work out. With help from our friends and a little luck.
           Last week we spent up in Oregon babysitting our cousins darling boys. While we were up there we got the sneaking suspicion that the reason the land in Chico continues to not work out is that we are perhaps not supposed to be there. So we called a Realtor in Portland and the search continues.  Not having to worry about water and melting the animals in 115 weather is just an added bonus. And for all of you who were planning on coming out to the farm just think of it this way. It takes the same amount of time to drive to Chico as it does to fly to Portland so really nothing has changed. We will always have room for you to come visit and the door will always be open. We will keep you updated as things develop. If you would like to come meet the mini cows give us a call!