CHAPTER 28
Victor had just put his pants on the next morning when he got a call from his neighbor Frank Hillard from down the road.
“Buncha my cows got out after some fucking dingus left the gate open,” he informed Victor. “There were about forty head in that field, mostly heifers… you wouldn’t happen to have a few boys around you could offer to help me wrangle them, would ya? I’m too damn old to be doing it by myself.”
“I’ll be over there with a few folks as soon as I can.”
“I ’preciate ya,” Frank said before hanging up.
Victor lightly tapped Johnny’s head, which was only partially visible above the comforter. “Come on. We got some cows to round up.”
“Huh?”
“You said you’re off work today, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Neighbor’s cows are loose. He asked for my help to wrangle them up.”
Johnny let out a slow groan, digging his face in the pillow. “Don’t I do enough of that at work? Don’t wanna see a single cow on my day off.”
“My neighbor is in his seventies and none of his kids live around here. We’re gonna help him out.”
Eventually Victor was able to convince Johnny to crawl out of bed and put some pants on.
Then, with dogs in tow, they headed outside into the frostbitten morning chill.
Victor was halfway through saddling Blitz when he heard Jade’s car driving up.
When Victor explained the situation, she wasted no time in grabbing her horse and her saddle and tacking up.
With three of them and two dogs at heel, they could make short work of forty Angus heifers.
Frank Hillard was sitting in a parked truck smoking a cigarette at the end of his driveway when Victor, Johnny, and Jade cantered up to him.
True to what Victor knew of him, he didn’t waste their time with any small talk.
He simply gestured toward a sloping hill to their south, informed him that was the last place he’d seen the cows, and wished them good luck.
Victor, Johnny, and Jade all spread out to look for the escapees.
Within twenty minutes, Jade called Victor’s cellphone and told him she’d found them down in a swamp at the edge of a cornfield, about a ten minute ride from where Victor was.
So Victor whistled for the dogs, and the dogs whipped past him as he pushed Blitz into a steady gallop along the grassy shoulder of the road.
Soon he spotted Jade on her roan gelding, waving him down, with Johnny on Saturn at her side.
He followed her into the cornfield, and at the very edge were the cows, some with muck lines up to their elbows as they waded through mud and stagnant water that had made the grass in that area especially tantalizing.
The dogs were bred to herd cattle, but Victor’s aunt had never given them any formal training, and Victor didn’t know how to, so for the most part they did as best as instinct could manage.
So far that was working well, as the dogs showed no hesitation in diving into the muck to drive the cows higher up the hill, somewhere the horses could more easily access them.
From there the group split into three different sections, each of which had to be driven back into the bigger herd until they were able to move as a unit down to the road.
At that time, Victor could hear a faint mooing come from the field they’d just left.
He told Jade to watch over the herd while he backtracked and found the straggler.
Thanks to Piper, he was able to; the cow’s black coat made her nearly impossible to spot in the brambles that grew around the swamp, and half of her was submerged in mud. Victor called Johnny on his phone.
“Can you come down here? I think it’s gonna take two of us to get her out.”
Twenty seconds later, Saturn came cantering up over the hill. She slid to a stop on the way down, leaving long skid marks in her wake. Victor pointed out the heifer to Johnny, who gathered up the lariat hanging from his saddle.
“How heavy you think she is?” Johnny asked.
“Probably about 400 pounds.”
“No way we’re pushing her out.”
“I’m hoping she can get on her feet with assistance, but she’s gonna have to try.
” Victor swung off Blitz and approached the heifer, who struggled with fear upon his approach but settled upon realizing it was hopeless.
Her snout was covered with frothy saliva from all her exertion, and she was panting heavily.
Otherwise she didn’t look injured, though she had to be cold when covered in wet muck in these frosty temperatures.
Victor stepped gingerly forward, hearing the ground squelch and bend underfoot.
She was down in a ditch, so to get to her he had to sit on his butt and crabwalk over the ledge until he could reach her head.
Johnny threw his lariat over to Victor, who then secured it around her neck, jerking it a few times to make sure it was a good fit.
He ordered Johnny to ride closer so that the angle was easier for her; he didn’t want to strangle her or throw her off balance.
Then he slid deeper into the mud so that he could grab her tail.
After signaling to Johnny to start pulling, Victor slapped her flanks with his free hand, pulling on her tail hard enough to motivate her but not hard enough to hurt.
She heaved up, legs churning, hoisting herself onto her front feet before the ground gave way beneath her and she stumbled.
Victor ordered Johnny to give her slack for a second to let her catch her breath.
After taking a moment, he waved Johnny on again.
“Come on now, hup!” Victor shouted, slapping her flanks a few times.
With a low grunt of effort, the heifer finally managed to get her front legs underneath her, and with the lariat tugging her forward and stabilizing her, she was able to follow her momentum up and out of the ditch, one of her hooves catching Victor’s thigh in the process.
He let out a hiss of pain and dropped back into the mud, even as the cow leapt onto firmer land and trotted off as far as the lariat would allow.
“Pinche vaca,” Victor hissed, sucking in a few deep breaths to cope with the pain until it faded. There’d be a big bruise there tomorrow. In the meantime, he wore more mud than clothing at this point, and his hands were frozen through.
“You need me to rope you, too?” Johnny joked, looping up his lariat. He must have extricated it from the cow.
“I wouldn’t mind a hand,” Victor admitted, and a second later Johnny’s lariat landed around his shoulders and tightened, pinning Victor’s arms to his chest. “Oh, very funny.”
“I can pull you out by your neck if you want.”
Giving Johnny a dark look, Victor pulled the lariat from around his shoulders and gripped it with both hands, using it for balance as Johnny reeled him out of the mud pit.
After dropping the lariat rope, Victor went to his patiently waiting horse and climbed aboard, wondering how much time his hands had left before they froze off.
The cow they’d just rescued was now making a run for it up the hill, the exact opposite direction of her herd.
With a sigh, Victor chased her down, whipping Blitz in front of her trajectory until they nearly collided.
She turned on her heel and decided downhill was best, so Johnny and Victor trotted after her until they came to the road and the herd, which the straggler peacefully joined without upset.
“Damn, what happened to you?” Jade asked Victor around a smile. “You fall off?”
“No, I had to rescue a cow from a ditch.”
“You look like a bog monster.”
“I feel like a bog monster.”
Jade snickered, then reached out to knock a clump of dirt off of Victor’s collar. “There. Much better.”
“He’s gettin’ a taste of that real cowboy life,” Johnny joked. Victor didn’t think he’d stopped smirking since he got the cow out of the pit.
“How’d I do?” Victor asked.
“Hell, if you wanna be my coworker, the feedlot’s takin’ applications.”
“I’ll pass. Let’s get these cows back in the fence.”
From that point, their job was relatively simple.
They chased the cows down the road back to Frank’s place, occasionally darting into a field to catch any wayward cows who wanted to make a break for it.
Because the cattle were mostly heifers and an occasional steer, none of them put up much of a fight when pushed.
It was a bit harder to get them back through the fence, but the dogs again lent their assistance, and the horses all worked well together.
At last the cattle were back where they belonged, and they met Frank at the driveway where he hadn’t moved since greeting them.
“Cows are back in,” Jade told him as they trotted up.
“What happened to you, boy?” Frank asked Victor. “You fall off?”
Johnny pinched his lips together to hold back a laugh. Victor sighed.
“No, one of your heifers was in a ditch. I had to fish her out.”
“Well, I really appreciate the effort.” Frank looked past Victor to the other two. “Who are your friends here? This your girlfriend?” he asked, gesturing to Jade.
“Jade’s my assistant trainer.”
“And this one?”
“Name’s Johnny, sir,” Johnny replied. “I’m not his girlfriend either.”
“Well, you wrangled up these cows real good. I’m grateful for the help.
I’d do it myself but the missus said I ain’t allowed to ride the horses anymore, not since my last fall a few years ago that put me in the hospital.
I should get outta the cattle altogether, but it’s in my blood.
You know how it is. I’ll die ‘fore I give up my way of life. Anyway, y’all have a good day now.
” Just as they all turned to ride off, Frank said, “Oh, and Victor?”
Victor stopped his horse and turned around to look at him. “Yes?”
“You need help findin’ yourself a missus you let me know. My wife knows the whole damn town, she could set you up with a nice girl real quick.”
Victor gave him a stiff nod. “Sure thing. Thank you, Frank.” Then he spurred Blitz into a canter to catch up with the others.
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