Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry

Author:Rosanne Parry [Parry, Rosanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-89250-9
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

MAY

“Bueno, Ignacio. Can you feel the calf?” Ernesto says. He is standing with me in the birthing stall, holding the cow's head so she won't back up and step on me. I've helped with calving since I was eight, but Dad never let me pull a calf before, and now I know why. Last year my arm was too short.

“Lean into it, Brother,” Grandpa says. He puts a hand on my shoulder and shows me how to turn a little sideways and get a few inches further into the birth canal so I can reach the baby calf. Grandpa pulled the last two calves, and now he's leaning on the bars of the stall to rest. The cow bawls pitifully. She's a first-calf heifer, and she doesn't know what she's doing. Ernesto brought her inside when her labor went on too long.

“Don't worry, she's just scared. You aren't hurting her,” Grandpa says.

I grunt and nod, standing in the wet, sticky straw. Grandma's in the stall next to us, making sure the calves we just pulled can stand and drink. There are five more calves with the mothers who didn't need any help at the far end of the barn. The sour, salty smell of blood and goo makes me gag a little, so I breathe through my mouth.

“Muy bien. Find the feet—two feet—and pull,” Ernesto says.

I grope around, twisting my wrist from side to side. At first all I feel is wet fur, and then something roundish and bumpy—a nose, maybe. I work my way down. At last! A leg! It's broomstick-skinny I fish around for the other one and squeeze them tight in my fist.

“I found them!”

“Bravo. Now pull, Ignacio.”

“Nice and steady, Brother; the hardest part is done.” Grandpa holds the tail to one side so I don't get smacked in the head with it.

I take a deep breath and pull as steady as I can. I feel the calf's legs and head ease out of the womb and into the birth canal.

“Here she comes,” I grunt, leaning back.

I brace myself for another tug, but something sucks the calf backward and pulls me in with it.

“No! Wait! Hey, she's going backwards.”

“Sí,” Ernesto says. “It is like the waves of the ocean. Pull with the wave, not against.”

This doesn't seem like a good time to point out that I've never been to the beach in my whole life.

“He's right, Brother, don't fight the contraction. Pull when you feel the squeeze and hold when it lets up. Do you feel it?”

I've been trying not to think about my arm getting squeezed every other minute, because, honestly, it's a really gross feeling.

“Sí, like the ocean.” Ernesto presses my free hand on the heifer's belly so I can feel the wave from the inside and the outside. “Pull. Wait. Pull. Wait.”

“Great. Thanks.” I push that queasy feeling out of my mind and think about what I guess the ocean is like. I brace my free arm on the heifer's hipbone and pull and wait and pull.

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