Meet Jack and Jill!

They haven’t run over any hills yet but I am sure they will soon! Jack, our 8 month old German Shepard puppy is a giant ball of energy and excitement. My mom got him as a 6 week old puppy and has been learning the ropes of the farm ever since. He loves the farm life and enjoys going out to visit the cows and chickens. One of his jobs on the farm is to keep the cows off the fence. Since the grass is always greener on the other side, (even if there are piles of snow on each side), the cows always want to push on the fence and investigate what is on the other side.  So, Jack runs out to bark at them and tell them to back off. The cows actually listen to him most of the time and he comes back to the house just beaming with pride. Another job of his is to keep track of my littles when they go to visit Grammie and Papa. We have been teaching Jack who Grammie and Papa are so that if the kids ever need help Jack will be able to go get someone.  Now that I have been telling you all about Jack, I bet you are thinking that Jill is also a puppy… nope! She is a little calf! She is actually only about 2 weeks old. She was born during a real cold snap and because she wasn’t strong enough to get up and nurse from her mom right away, her mom pushed her away. Because our cows are beef cows and spend most of their time outside, they are very hardy stock but they do not like to be locked in the barn and milked. So our only option was to move Jill into our barn where we have a small heater.  She didn’t have the strength to even drink her bottle so we had to put a tube in her stomach and get the warm milk in there ASAP! We were really worried that she wasn’t going to make it. But she pulled through the night and in the morning my mom took Jack out to meet Jill. It was LOVE at first sight (or maybe it was first sniff).  Anyways, Jill was lying down, still acting pretty weak. But Jack thought she was the coolest ever and he immediately started licking her and laid down, cuddling next to her. She started eating up all that attention. My mom noticed a huge improvement in her as she started to perk up! Jack was her new friend. By the evening feeding, she was standing and able to drink her own bottle. During the next few days, Jack was so excited to head out to the barn to check on Jill. They have definitely bonded and she is quite spunky now. My mom (Kellie) and John Henry are thinking about letting my son Ty, show Jill in 4-H. She will definitely grow up with lots of little hands all over her giving lots of love.  We thought this was such a great story because we don’t know if she would have pulled through if it weren’t for all of Jack’s extra attention. We thank God for his provision, He always provides even in the small ways. We know He cares about our animals just as much as we do. Thank you to all who support our farm and I hope you enjoyed this #window2thefarm.