Jailbreak in the dark

No snow yet.  The cattle are still grazing in the pasture and in Calvin's field.  Tomorrow I planned to look at Calvin's field to see how much there is left to eat.  Might be time to give them a large hay bale.  As usual the cattle beat my plans by a day or two.  This evening around 7 pm Curtis called as a car drove up my driveway.  The woman in the car said she saw a black white faced cow on the road.  It has gone to Rusty's yard and seemed to want back on the road according to her.  She last seen the cow heading down the driveway to John's place.

I called Donna for help then went out to look.  As it was 7 pm it was pitch black outside with no moon.

Rusty's pickup was in the driveway with its lights shining down the long driveway.  Rusty and Curtis were out.  Armed with a flashlight I ran down the driveway to John's house to let him know why I would be wandering in his field with a flashlight.  No sign of the missing cow.

John's wife said John told her he had seen four of my cattle in his field before he went to bed. She seen only the one cow. She tried to close their gate but couldn't due to the gate leaning into the ground and grass.  Neither called to let me know.

I closed their gate.  Then I went back to Rusty and Curtis to let them know to keep an eye out for up to four cattle.  Donna arrived and we went back to get my pickup to use the pickup's lights to look for my cattle.

I turned the barn light on.  Some cattle mooed outside the corral in the north pasture.  I got a hay bale and put it in the wooden feeder.  More cattle came.  Once all came I counted and recounted and recounted.  No matter how many times I came up with one cattle missing.  At least Buddy the bull (who is white faced) was here. The white faced cow was also here.  Donna thought she saw Panda.  Maybe the missing cow was a broco faced cow.

I drove back to John's place.   Standing at the end of his driveway was Panda.  I went to open John's gate.  Panda was agitated.  She didn't like being blinded by my pickup's lights.  She ran past the pickup and Donna and went down to where Rusty had his pickup in the driveway.

I decided to take chance and try to let her go down to almost the road where there was a opening in the fence over to Curtis's driveway.  From there I could herd her through my gate between me and Curtis.

I let Curtis and Rusty know to let the cow go past them.  I followed Panda.  I tried walk briskly and not run.  When we got nearer the road I trotted to try to get past Panda so I could herd her to the right and through the fence opening.  After I started to trot Panda began to run to keep ahead of me.

Panda turned through the fence opening.  Instead of making a hard right she continued through Jerry's yard and along the road.  I decided to follow along and not make her go to a hard right.  Maybe I could herd her to my driveway.

Past Jerry's yard Panda walked on the road. She paused at the gate to my NE pasture.  She was still ancy.  I moved closer to open the gate.  As I moved closer Panda continued on to my driveway.

Now approaching down the road was a vehicle.  Hopefully they could see me and my flashlight. Being black Panda would be hard to see on the road.  Then behind me Rusty came with his pickup.  Once Panda she reached my driveway she turned in.  Once she got in to my yard and back to something she remembered she immediately got calmer.  Donna followed us in my pickup.  I closed my driveway gate.   I walked down to the coral gate.  This time Panda did not freak out when I walked past her.  After I opened the gate Panda walked into the corral.  The rest of the cattle were still eating hay.

I closed all the corral gates and am keeping the cattle in the corral overnight.  I went out to the north pasture and closed the gate to Calvin's field.  Tomorrow I will haul a large hay bale out to the north pasture and let the cattle eat on it.

Curtis and Rusty thought this was fun.  Me, I'm glad it turned out well, though I could have done without the excitement.