“Aye.”
“That’s the front hoof. I can only find one.”
I pulled my hand free. “So we reposition the flexed limb and the calf should come out?”
“That’s the idea.” He retrieved the two calving ropes and reached inside the cow with one of the ropes. “I’m looping the rope over the leg that’s presented properly,” he explained. “I need you to hold this to maintain its position.”
I took the rope he handed me, wrapping it around my hand until I felt tension.
“You got that?” he asked, giving me a hard look.
I nodded, adjusting my position, digging my boots into the straw. “I’m ready.”
“Okay, then. Three, two, one…” Callum heaved, pushing on the calf. “I can feel the other leg! Just unbending it now slowly.”
Skye made a disgruntled noise, and I held my breath. When she started twitching, I called her name softly, cooing until she settled.
“I’ve got the hoof!” Callum exclaimed. “Hand me that other calving rope.”
I watched him work. “She’s already exhausted, so we’re gonna help pull this little one out.” He gave me both handles. “You ready?”
Oh,Iwas going to pull this calf out? Okay, then. I nodded.
“Get yourself in a good position,” Callum said. “To give yourself leverage.”
I kicked some of the straw out of the way, making sure my boots wouldn’t slip.
“You want to try and time your pulls with her contractions,” Callum explained.
I gritted my teeth and tugged hard, watching the hooves slip free first, then that tiny nose I’d felt. The head and shoulders came next, and my heart thudded at the sight. This little one was almost here.
“Hips will be tough,” Callum said.
I braced myself, then gave another great tug, and the entire calf slipped free onto the bed of straw. Callum was immediately down on the ground, rubbing straw along its coat and clearing its face of the birth fluids to make sure it could breathe.
“It’s a girl,” he said, looking up at me with a pleased grin. “You got a name?”
I shook my head, still reeling. I’d never experienced something as exhilarating as guiding a new life into the world.
“Aye, well, give it a think. Let’s clear out a bit and see if Skye will clean her up.”
Callum and I both moved out of the way, taking our supplies with us. As expected, Skye perked up, got to her feet, and turned to inspect the new addition to the pen. Once those mothering instincts kicked in, she started licking the calf clean.
Callum nudged me. “You handled that better than I expected. Done this before?”
“Never with a Highland cow,” I admitted, “but Grandad had me help with the occasional sheep birth.” The calf popped her head up, a shaggy mound of adorable, ginger fur.
“Well, you did a good job,” he said approvingly.
Part of me cheered internally at the compliment. Callum clearly wasn’t an easy man to impress, and if he approved of me being here, of the job I was doing around Lochbrae, maybe that meant I truly would do Grandad justice.
“Just happy I could help,” I said, meaning that. My hands tingled, still buzzing from the thrill of the birth.
“Your Grandad never hesitated to get his hands dirty,” Callum said. “You never felt like he thought he was too good for this kind of work.”
Callum’s expression softened the longer he watched the calf. “You really enjoy your work, eh?” I asked.
“This job and this town mean a lot to me,” he said as he leaned against the fence. “Pete hired me when I just couldn’t seem to hold a job down. Thought I’d been cursed or something with the amount of bad luck I was having, getting laid off again and again. I’d turned to drinking down my sorrows. That’s when Pete found me, down at the pub in town.”
