The McGails Cattle

Roland

It was a cool and crisp morning when Jennifer McGail got up out of her messy  bed. She shut her lime green eyes tight and let our a loud lawn as she ran her fingers through her thick and messy red curls.
She had only been asleep for thirty minutes, but she was only given a thirty minute break before she had to get back to the daily grinde of check up on the cows who were still in the calfing process. she had been at this for the last two days. She started with one hundred pregnant heffers, and now she was down to the final three. She'd be surprised if two of them hadn't already finished giving birth, but that was why she was down here at the barn. Because animals were very unpredictable.
She walked over to the last three stalls.
"How's it going, girls?" she called out cheerfully. One of the cows gave a long low moo in reply. "Hi there, gorgeous." She poked her head over the stall door and looked in on the beautiful white and cream colored cow. "No kid yet? I'm sorry, girl. We will get through this." she tried to encourage. Then she went on to the next stall where she found a proud momma, completely black, with a completely white calf nursing at her utter. Its hair was still wet from birth. "Well, look here." Jennifer walked into the stall slowly so that the momma cow wouldn't feel threatened. She looked the calf over and was happy to see it was a little boy. "Well done, momma." she praised the tired cow, then looked her over to make sure that momma wasn't suffering any possible birthing complications. Everything looked good, so she moved on to the next and last cow.
This one was a beautiful cream colored jersy cow. The only survivor from her herd of jersy cows that had been attacked by a pack of wolves three years ago. She looked into the stall and saw something that broke her heart.
A calf lay sprawled out on the ground in an unnatral position, it's face on the ground, one of it's hand legs obviously had been stepped on and busted as it bent to the side making an sharp L shape.
"Oh momma!" Jennifer whispered and then slowly made her way into the stall with the momma cow who stood with a terrified look to her eyes. "I'm so sorry, girl." Jenniefer gently stroked the cow's face and rubbed her sides, then slowly checked to make sure she wasn't still bleeding or dealing with any other birthing compliations. Other than being scared, she seemed just fine. Jennifer opened the outside gate to her stall to allow her to join the rest of the herd. It would help her calm down and heal from the trauma she had experienced.
Jennifer went back into the stall, and as she bent down to pick up the poor little calf, she heard it let out a sad little moo.
Jennifer gasped. The little guy was still alive!
She gently stroked his head as she moved it so she could see his face better. He had a soft brown patch in a perfect diamond shape on his forhead.
She smiled as she continued her examination of him. His body temperature was very low. He seemed as if his broken leg was least of his injuries.
She picked him up and carried him back to her house where she gently set him down on a stack of blankets set up just in case something like this happened.
She called out for her little sister, Callie, who looked exactly like her minus twenty years. And at only six years old, was already came to Jennifer's shoulder. Though that wasn't saying much, Jennifer was only 4 and a half feet tall.

The six year old girl came running down the hall way from her bedroom and into the living room "I need your help, I need you to fix him a warm bottle and do your best to keep him warm while I look after the rest of cows." she explained. "Sure. I got it." Callie grinned up at her, her bright green eyes wide and   sparkling with excitment. "Good. Thanks." Jennifer turned to leave when Callie stopped her with an excited. "Can I name him?" she asked. Jennifer dreaded that question, but relentend with a "Yeah, but we aren't keeping him as a pet."Yeah, sure." Callie gave her a dismissive wave and then disappeared into the kitchen to start making the little calf a bottle. Just keep him warm!" Jennifer chuckled and then went back out to the barn.
As she neared the massive structure, she could hear the cries of the last heffer as it worked to push the calf free from her body.
Jennifer ran the rest of the way to the stall to make sure things were not as bad as they sounded.
Two hours later and she had finished cleaning up the birthing stalls.
Unfortunately, the last cow and her calf had died during birth. She left them laying in that stall and would inform her father about it later.
This was not how she had intended to spend her summer vacation.

Jennifer McGail had studied hard and poured most of her high school years as well as her early twenties using every spare minute she had to study to be an x-ray technition. She had finally landed a job when her dad had called to inform her that her mother had been diagnosed with early onset alhzimers. With her little sister only being four at that time, she was needed back home.
Jennifer didn't understand why her six older brothers couldn't just help out. After all, they lived much closer to home than she did. But her dad wasn't one to be easily persuaded about things like family emergencies.

She had finally made it back to the house and bandaged up the calf as well as shot him full of antibiotics and medine to help with any other possible issues. She hoped he would survive.
She dragged her feet up the three flights of stairs and into her bathroom and was climbing into a nice hot shower when she heard the unmistable sound of her mother calling her name.
"Jennifer!" her mother screamed again.
Jennifer stepped back out of the shower and put her dirty clothes back on. The shower would have to wait until later.
She made her way downstairs and into the living room where her mother was wearing a long glittery coctail dress and sipping on what appeared to be some kind of martini. "What is this?" she demanded she pointed to the little calf that was sound asleep in Callie's lap. "I already told you mom, his name is Roland, and he is mine." Callie beamed up at Jennifer who just smirked and rolled her eyes "I mean, what is it doing in my house?" their mother demanded.
She wasn't always this way, in fact, Jennifer had learned animal husbandry from her while her father was at work. Now, with the ely onset Alhzhimers, her mother was not in her right mind.
This was part of why Jennifer was so tired all the time. Between Callie, mom and the cows, Jennifer didn't have any time to do much for her own health.
"Its-" Jennifer begain but Callie cut her off "Roland." she corrected and then waited for Jennifer to finish "His mother stepped on him. He needs a splint as well as a few days of pampering. He won't live in the house for long." Jennifer tried to consol her mother.
"See that he doesn't. Also, don't forget, I have that show this evening. You'll need to stay and look after your sister. Your brothers won't be back from football  until late. They may even stay at the  Benjamins house." This last statement was far from the truth.
Her brothers were all away at their own farm far on outside edge of the family property. They were trying to start their own cattel ranch. All six had been done dealing with their father's constant criticism.
They had left shortly after mother had been given the diagnosis of early on set alzhimers and that only left her and Callie at the ranch. Mostly Jennifer to handle all the heavy stuff.
She was so tired all the time and could feel her own health starting to dissapiate . But she had to keep pressing on.
"Alright momma." Jennifer knew that was the only answer that would appease her mother. She also knew that after that martini, her mother would pass out on the couch or in bed. There was no chance of her leaving the house.

Jennifer turned and went on into the kitchen to start dinner. Her father would be home soon. Since mom getting sick and the boys all leaving, he had gotten really depressed and would spend most of his days on his own, either out riding in the field and checking on the cattle to giving her a list of things that needed to be done or out at the local pub with his farming buddies.

Jennifer set up a nice pork roast in the oven and then once again, climbed the three flights of stairs up to her shower and into the nice steaming hot water to rinse off the hard work of the day.

The next morning, all hell broke.