Frequently Disappointed and Occassionally Surprised

Several years ago when I was still doing large animal work I was called out to a place on the Nueces river bottom to pull a dead calf out of a heifer. It was in July and it was pretty hot. The owner and I snubbed the heifer up to a post and I attached my “calf puller” to the calves front feet and gave it a pull. But the heifer too small and the calf too big for it to come out. So I attached the puller to one of the front legs and cut around the skin and pulled the leg off but the calf still wouldn’t come out. So I took the other leg off and attached my puller to the head. This time I got most of the calf out but the calve’s hips wouldn’t pass through the pelvic canal… it was “hip locked” So with the calf under tension I severed the calf so that just the hips and back legs were left in the heifer. So I reached inside and turned the back half around (no easy feat) so I could attach my puller to the back legs… it still wouldn’t pull. So then I pulled off one of the back legs and was able to attach to the remaining leg and deliver the calf out successfully.

I had not only been fighting the dead calf but also 100 degree heat and dust and fire ants. I think we charged less than $100 in those days but I was pretty happy with myself… not only the knowledge part of it but also the physicality part of it. Plus I had saved the heifer. I was the hero.

A couple of months later the rancher came into the clinic with another cow problem and asked to speak about it with the Veterinarian who owned the practice.

I was shocked, I had laid it all out for that guy and figured I had built some kind of loyalty and yet there was none… no loyalty whatsoever.

Here’s what I learned from that… don’t worry about what others think of you… just do your best and move on and let the Lord value and bless you.

I find that as an optimist I am frequently disappointed and only occasionally surprised. But I’ve never been disappointed in the Lord and am frequently pleasantly surprised by Him. Remember that in everything we do we are working for the Lord not some other human being.