We peered into the barn to get a look at which cow was coming next.
And then it was her turn.
Daisy’s!
“Go high,” I said to Josh. I didn’t want to lose her.
The bidding started.
The auctioneer pointed to someone in the crowd acknowledging the start of bidding. $700.
Josh nodded indicating he would take it to $800.
$900, their bid.
$1,000, our bid.
“Go to $1,300,” I whispered to Josh.
$1,100, their bid.
I realize the woman next to me is bidding – “we’re bidding against you!?!?” I ask in disbelief. She nods with a smile but stays focused on the action.
$1,200, our bid.
$1,300, their bid.
“Go higher, a little!” I whisper frantically.
“SOLD!” is shouted and the woman whispers next to me “$1,325 and she would have been yours.”
We lost her.
I’m in shock, slightly, but also maybe relieved.
It was so exciting getting caught up in the moment and we didn’t really need a $1,300 cow, even if her name was Daisy, I mean Daisey.
We have to refocus. We really want to go home with two cows. We already have Hope, which feels great, but we would like one who is already milking. It’s hard to pass up on the other cows that are due around the time that Hope is, but we want to ease into this milking thing.
In comes a few other cows were not interested in, Holsteins, or currently dry.
We’ve lost our focus and there are only two cows left that will work for us.
A rusty colored girl comes in, currently milking, treated recently, number 153.
We hadn’t even squeezed in next to this girl to get a sense of her temperament. But she’s almost our last hope for a cow currently giving milk.
I’m on the fence. We’d passed on her in our meeting of the cows because of the “T” on her hips. I didn’t think it was worth dealing with a cow who had been treated. Not only would we need to arrange having her milk tested if the treatment was very recent, it also indicated a cow susceptible to mastitis.
Josh started bidding.
I couldn’t stop him, in my surprise.
I glanced at the “catalog” – her name was Shadow.
He kept bidding.
The fight for this Number 153 was not a hard one and we soon realized we had bought her.
“What were you thinking? What possessed you?” I asked half in jest.
He looked sheepish, which was appropriate.
Did we make a mistake in buying this cow?