It is five o’clock and could anything else go wrong. Somehow on this nippy morning I am getting a mist of water on my back. My hands dirty with what I was touching. Painted finger nails being chipped off into a bucket of water, SMACK, went something up against a steal rod. Was I in a dream or is this really happening to me?

I stood up quickly and dodged a leg that was about to kick me. Dirt was flying everywhere, my hair now sprinkled with bubbles of soap and pieces of mud. My clothes sopping wet. The only thing not wet was my gray shoes that were supposed to be water-proof. This early in the morning, my body parts never cooperates with my brain. Who knew this could be so hard to do. BANG! Her leg hit the bucket and the water got my shoes soaked. Squish, swash, squish, swash, went my feet trying to carry this dead weight of a body to go get a new bucket of soapy water.

This is what happens when things are super white, and they like to stay muddy like a pig. She was one year old and was very feisty. She loved to get everything her way; she always got everything her way until I came. Trying to clean a beast when they never have a certain time to wake up in the morning is a tremendously tough thing to do. Training her is the best part of my job. If I succeed then I get satisfaction of knowing what I am capable of doing. She still likes me when I am not trying to do anything to her. She licks the grain out of my hand and chews the grass I give her for a treat. She must think that she is a queen or something the way I treat her. When I put a halter on her she bucks and kicks everything in her way. Once she got loose from my hands and started to run. THUD! She left me behind in a patch of poison ivy. When I looked up, all I could see was her tail curving around the building. I knew she was way stronger than me, and it didn’t help that she had two more legs than what I had. She was a beauty and I decided to call her Glow. Now I had to find my heifer calf. That’s just what I wanted to do.

“Come out, come out, where ever you are” I said jokingly to myself.

I got around the building there she was trotting around in the hay field. Luckily my brother, Ryan, was there to help me get the halter on her. He stood back as I tried to lead her to the barn, but me being so bright, had to loop the halter around my arm. Just like that she took off again like a rocket ready for lift off. It all happened so slow in my mind. Glow was moving her feet as I looked down, but I could not move my hands to get the rope off around my arm. All I could do was run alongside of her, but I did not occur to me to watch where I was running. SMACK! My body crashed up against the barn. There I was, lying back in the same poison ivy spot, but this time with a huge rope burn on my arm.


My mom saw the whole thing happen. She quickly ran inside to get some spray for my arm. My brothers and sister got Glow back in the barn, but when my sister was cutting her off to go a different direction, she got kicked in her thigh and it left a bruise.

“Could anything else go wrong today?” I said out loud to myself.

After my mom spread my arm, I still had a smaller calf to walk. Good thing I could handle her. All went well after my accident, milking was done, feeding was done, walking calves was done. By the end of the day I felt disgusting, and it was way past my bed time.
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KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. I quickly look outside. For some strange reason there was a man standing outside. I tried not to move so he would not know I was just inside the window starring him down. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

“Is he every going to leave?” thinking to myself.

“Who's out here?” my mom said.

“I have no clue” I answered back trying not to move a muscle.

“Hello? HOLY COW!! Kids get up we have cows out!” my mom yelled.

“I was on my way to work when I saw cows roaming around by the creek, I just figured they were from this farm” the guy explained.

Everyone got ready quickly and my mom and I drove down the road to try to get the cows back to our farm as fast as possible. I had a good guess who was down there, and once we showed up I was right. Sure enough it was Glow with the rest of the milk cows. All of them but one ran back to the barn, ready to be milked. This was the first time she did not want to run away from me. Glow walked on the right side of the road with me. My mom was driving behind us with the flashing lights on, so cars would know to slow down. Glow took her time and this was the funniest thing I had ever had happened with my fair project.











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A couple months later was the Auglaize County Fair. Glow still never changed a whole lot. I did not end up showing her for the district show, and it was a good thing because she ran my sister over in the ring. Unfortunately the 4-H show was the next night and I had to show her for that. I was scared. My hands shaking. My knees trembling. I did not know what kind of stunt she was going to pull.

Thinking to myself again, “will I get another rope burn? Will she knock me down and get my white clothes dirty? These last several months have been hard for Glow and I. Our relationship hasn't grown. Usually I can click with cows easily, I don't know what I did wrong, but this cow cannot be trained.”

Once I got out of the show ring I was so happy. I may have not won first place, but I found one thing out. Glow and I had finally clicked.