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By Sonya Kazen
It started out as a typical soggy day in cozy Cloverdale. But when we drove down Campground Road, we had to slam on the brakes to avoid plowing right into a huddled herd of yearling calves standing in the middle of Parkway Drive. The crafty critters had jumped a fence at a dairy farm half a mile south and ambled up busy Highway 101. Luckily, especially on this last Sunday of spring break, not a hair was grazed on calf or human.
Kindly neighbor Victor jumped on his cell phone and started calling locals to find the rightful owners. By the time the calves’ people arrived, they had hoofed it up a long driveway and were boxed in by two serendipitously-placed laurel hedges. The farmers backed in a big truck, swung open the doors and let down the ramp. For good measure, they parked a pickup across the intersection. Didn’t take much prodding to get those cattle on a slow stampede down the driveway right into the waiting truck.
All’s well and almost doesn’t end well: Victor was just settling in back home when he spotted four more calves way up in his woods. Another call was made to summon the farmers. Victor and his teenage boys stood guard till the trucks came and staged another round up, then hauled the stragglers home.
Hopefully, all the cattle are now present and accounted for and are happily munching their Sunday hay supper.
