Brenda

Brenda was sick. She wouldn’t stop lying down. I was standing near her head stroking her nose and all she was doing was groaning. The calf didn’t seem to mind too much,  but then a lot of things can pass you by when you’re only three days old. Besides with me there he was probably thinking everything was alright.

There’s a creek that runs through our paddock down the back. Usually it’s just a string of little ponds where you can catch tadpoles. There’s gum trees on the other side of it and it’s got sandy banks. At that time we had been having days and days of rain and all the little ponds had become linked into one river. That’s the reason I found Brenda so soon. I always like playing down at the creek when it’s in flood.  Lots of interesting things get washed down from upstream like birds’ nests and driftwood.  Last year a whole family of ducklings hatched the day the rain stopped and we had to keep Wombat on her chain to stop her from going down and barking at them. Anyway, I was on my way down to the creek when I noticed the new calf all on its own. When I went to see what he was doing is when I found Brenda. She was lying with her head downhill,  as though she had fallen over trying to get a drink of water.

I think Mum  was upset. See, Brenda is older than me. Mum  had owned her for a very long time. She had had four or five calves before and she’d never done anything like this. Mum said once she cut her leg on some wire and Dad had stitched it up with his fishing line.  They put her in the milking bale and tied her leg up and Mum said she hardly felt the needle going in and out. Mum said she was a tough old thing. I think that’s why she was worried this time. She must’ve thought it was pretty serious to make Brenda complain. I knew she’d be alright. I mean who would die when they had a little baby to take care of.  Anyway Mum had gone up to the house to ring up the vet and to get something for Brenda to drink out of and that’s why I was down at the creek on my own looking after her.

Brenda was black-and-white. She looked enormous when she was lying down. If you looked closely at the pattern on her side you could see the face of an old man laughing. The longer you looked at it the more you wanted to laugh too. I could’ve almost forgotten that she was sick if she  hadn’t kept moaning every time she breathed out.  When Mum came back she had a bucket and we got some water from the creek but Brenda wouldn’t drink any of it.  Mum told me that the vet said that he would be over as soon as he could.  But that could even be an hour because he had to drive over from town.

We drive into town once a week to do the shopping. I usually enjoy it because we have meat pies for lunch from Brian’s and we go into the Service Station. There’s a boy at the Service Station that Mum says should be going to school. He always lets me come and have a look inside the cars that they are fixing. He says he’s going to buy a sports car one day and I could have a ride in it but I don’t really like cars.   Anyway one day I’ll most probably have a sports car too. Sometimes when we’re in town after Mum has done the shopping we go to the department store and she looks clothes patterns and materials and things. I am usually allowed to look in the toy department if I don’t touch anything because Mum can still keep an eye on me from the material department.  

Anyway we were sitting with Brenda and Mum was getting all clucky and saying baby talk to Brenda.  Every now and then she’d get up if she heard a noise to make sure it wasn’t Mr. Hodge driving past.

“How come he knows where to come” I asked.

 Mr. Roger had only lived in Wattamurra for a little while because I remember Dad saying when he arrived. Dad said he didn’t think Mr. Hodge would be very busy in Wattamurra since everyone knew all about treating their own animals. Mum said it would be a mercy for him to have any spare time on account of him bringing up two kids on his own. I asked why he didn’t just get married. Mum didn’t really hear me and Dad just laughed . Anyway it turned out that Mum had left the red car park near the gateway and had given Mr. Hodge directions about getting to the creek. I was still worried that he would get lost when he came to the fork in the road going to Grandma‘s place, but Mum said he was used to finding his way round by now.  Still, the longer we waited the more I think she wished she had let me go and stand by the fork in the road. She’s like that. Eventually we saw a cream coloured station wagon coming towards us. Brenda was lying flat out now and all her muscles were twitching and  to be honest, I was getting worried about her. Even the calf had come over and was sniffing at her sides.

Mr. Hodge jumped out of the car. Mum had got up to greet him but he walked straight past her. He had on some green overalls and he was sort of skinny and small, nothing like my dad. He walked straight up to Brenda and started milking all of her teats. Then he listened to her heart with a stethoscope just like a doctor.

“How old is she? “ he asked Mum

“Two years older than me” I told him.

I didn’t know whether he heard me or not because he just kept poking her and looking at her. Mum said “This must be her fifth calf. She’s never done anything like this before. We’re pretty upset because she’s our house cow and she’s such a good milker. Do you think she’s been poisoned?”

He turned around to face Mum.  

“ When did you find her Mrs. Martin?”  

And so Mum  told him how we had only just missed her that afternoon and she was fine and eating that morning just after Sesame Street.

 Mr Hodge went back to his car and brought a bucket and some bags and kneeled down next to Brenda.

“I think she’s got milk fever” he said.  She’s the right age and type,  and there doesn’t seem to be much else wrong with her. I’ll give her some calcium and we should have her on her feet in no time.

 And that’s what happened.

 First of all. Mum  had to hold Brenda‘s head stretched out while Mr. Hodge  put a needle into her neck - she didn’t like that much - and then they connected a bag of stuff to the needle and ran it in.  Mr. Hodge kept listening to her heart to make sure it was going in alright.  

When Brenda had got up mum was very relieved and she wanted Mr Hodge to come in for a cup of tea. Mr Hodge said he was a bit busy but he looked really pleased to be asked. Sometimes I really like my mum.  Just before he left -  he’d put the bucket and everything back into the car -  he turned around and smiled at me.

“What’s your name, little one?”

 Next thing I knew I was swinging up in the air above his head. That’s one thing about grown-ups,  even if they’re good vets, they’ve got no idea about waiting to get to know a person before they get too friendly. He smelt like cows and tobacco and hospitals and I think I must’ve been wrinkling up my nose judging from the look Mum was giving me.  “You’d be a great little playmate for my Sal” he said.

I didn’t know what to think. It’s one thing to make Brenda better and I loved him for that but I still felt really shy.  When he put me down I ran over to where Brenda had been lying to see if I could souvenir any needles or things.  I  could hear Mum  saying  “There’s not many girls of Anna’s age around that she’s friendly with, not having started  school yet. She’d love to come and say hello to your little girl”

And that’s how I first came to meet Sally Hodge.