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“Can’t Maisie do it? I want to go with you.”
“Please, Hannah. Not now. Cord’s coming back with another calf. He’ll be with me for the pulling.” Nearly on top of them now, Drew hopped off her horse and shoved the reins at her sister. “I need you on calf warming, and besides, Maisie doesn’t know anything about horses.”
“I’m afraid that’s true.” Even though she had no reason to know anything about them, Maisie had never felt like such a failure. She wished she could be more useful when everyone else seemed to know by instinct what to do.
“Fine.” Hannah looked none too happy about it, but it was clear she wouldn’t argue. “But I’m only giving in so easily because otherwise Dad will end up out here, and he needs to stay in bed.”
Maisie noticed Drew was already out of earshot and likely hadn’t heard the response. She hadn’t waited for one, either. She’d given the order and left, like a general commanding her troops. Maisie felt a pang of sympathy for Hannah. It probably sucked to have Drew as a big sister.
As a wife, on the other hand…
Pushing that thought from her mind as quickly as it had entered, Maisie went with Hannah and Stormy toward the horse stable. In an attempt to mollify Hannah, Maisie asked, “The snow really complicates things, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah. When a calf is born, the mom has to dry it off as soon as possible. When it’s snowing like this, it makes it difficult. The babies get cold real quick, which is why we have to end up warming some of them.”
“How does the mom dry off her baby?” Maisie tried to picture a cow holding a terry cloth robe.
“With her tongue,” Hannah said like it was the most natural answer in the world.
Maisie made a face. “She licks all that blood and yuck with her tongue?”
“That’s nature’s way.” The teenager shot Maisie an amused glance as she got Stormy settled into his stall. Maisie watched her every move, trying to learn whatever she could. Having Drew call out her lack of knowledge about horses still smarted way more than it should’ve, and Maisie was eager to learn what she could to avoid having it happen again.
They’d just finished this task when Cord pulled up with another cold calf. He handed it over to Hannah, who took it like it was no harder to carry than a sack of potatoes, and raced off to help Drew pull the calf.
“What do we do with this little guy?” Maisie asked. “Can he go in the warmer with the other one?”
“He’s a she.” Hannah corrected. “And no, there isn’t room for two.”
“I can’t believe how quickly you do that.” Maisie was still shaking her head at Hannah’s talent for figuring out the gender of calves without even appearing to look. “Do you have another warmer?”
“Not exactly.” Hannah hefted the calf higher in her arms and headed out of the barn.
Maisie ran after her into the snow. “Where are we going?”
“Back to the house. We need to get her into the tub.”
Maisie was trying to puzzle out where a cow tub would be found in the house, but she needn’t have bothered. As soon as they were inside, with Hannah carrying the calf right through the living room like it was totally normal to do that, they headed to the main bathroom. Hannah put the calf in the tub and turned on the faucet.
“You give them a bath in the human tub?” Maisie wasn’t sure if she was impressed at the ingenuity or horrified that she would be washing her hair in the same place in a few hours’ time.
“You do what you have to do.” There was that Campbell family shrug again. The resemblance between the sisters was uncanny, to the point Maisie felt like she was looking at a young Drew. “Here, help me adjust the temperature like you would for your own bath while I use the sprayer to clean her. It’ll warm her right up.”
Maisie knelt beside the tub, brushing the hair from her eye. She turned on the tap and adjusted it as hot as it would go, though the water from the pipes was cold to the touch. “I had no idea birthing calves was such hard work.”
“For the most part, the moms do all the work when it comes to birthing. We just keep an eye on them to see if they’re close—”
“How can you tell? Do they start screaming for an epidural?”
Hannah laughed. “Their tails go out from their bodies as that area becomes more sensitive. A while later, you start to see the hooves. Once that happens, the rest of the calf soon follows. Unless the hooves are facing the wrong direction. That’s when you know it’s breech.”
“Then what happens?” Maisie asked, breathless to know what Drew was facing that night.
“Well, if it’s backward, all you can do is pull. You put the chains around the legs, then go gently until the hips are free and the ribcage clears the mama’s pelvis.” Hannah rattled off the process without a moment of hesitation, making it clear she’d not only been around this kind of thing her whole life but took particular interest in it.
“Is it hard?” Maisie couldn’t imagine how it wouldn’t be, and her own muscles ached at the thought of what Drew would be going through.
“It takes a lot of strength,” Hannah agreed. “Sometimes it takes two people, or you have to use a cable and a winch.”
