Happy Thanksgiving!!  While I didn't get much turkey, everyone else seemed to enjoy it.  I was left staring at this smoked pig's tail that someone left on the office table.....unfortunately, they made me share it! 

There is nothing I love more than a good rain.  I love to get wet and muddy - especially with my friend Little Dog.  We love "hunting" moles in the rain....the best part is running back in the house to get towel dried!
Tonight I checked on the girls between mole holes and realized my friend Alice is REALLY eating for two!  Alice is just over a month away from calving (atleast according to the schedule) and its really starting to show  - but don't tell her!!

It's a well known fact that I like my food....in fact, I like to leave the office well before 5pm in anticipation of dinner around 5/5:30.  Mind you this doesn't mean that actually happens most nights, as my human owners are not that punctual!  These days I am not the only one waiting for dinner though.  Little Alley likes to play while her mother Priscilla, Aunt Lizzy and Cousin Millie mooooo for food but as soon as that bucket appears, Alley heads for the feed tub.  Although she is getting bigger by the day, she is still much smaller than I am.  Alley still loves to run! 
In this photo, she is sharing a tub of feed with her Aunt Lizzy (Priscilla's half sister)

Alley is growing up quickly!  The rest of the herd greets her through the fence although I hear she still is not big enough to go into the "big field".  I caught her sniffing noses with her grandmother through the fence yesterday...it was quite a sight to see three generations of females together!  All of the cows here did well in the show ring in their day but it is interesting to see the traits that pass down from generation to generation.  My favorite part is that the girls look like girls and the boys look like boys because otherwise it wouldn't be that easy for me to tell them apart!  Not all miniature hereford breeders focus on that trait but its important here....

As the daylight dwindles earlier and earlier each night, I found myself watching the cows in the dark several nights this week.  They have been eating a new brand of cubes that Madison seems to really enjoy so she has been joining me on my nightly patrols more this week.  Each year I see more and more calves being born on the ranch and there are some recurrng traits I must admire.  In this case, its the beautiful pigment around Millie's eyes.  I hear it was a requirement for each bull last year - Elvis has it, TJ has it and Decker had lots of it!  Millie inherited it from Elvis and Alley has it from TJ....maybe all the 2010 babies will!  It just so happens, its the same color as me!!

Meet HD TJ's Alley Surprise....or Alley for short.  She was born October 26th and will be two weeks old on Monday!

My job is never done....after an exhausting night out on the prowl, I needed to catch up on my sleep at the office.  Just in case anyone tries to take my "friend" (in this case, a red/pink monkey), I am sleeping with my head on it!

This is my friend Little Dog (you can guess why she has that name!).  LD loves the cows as much as I do.  Every night (even when I am lazy), she patrols the fields and checks the cows.  LD gets especially excited....or jealous...when a new baby is born.  Here you can see Little Dog is ready to go!