{"id":151,"date":"2011-11-07T05:56:11","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T10:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/?p=151"},"modified":"2011-11-07T05:58:31","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T10:58:31","slug":"the-babysitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/the-babysitter\/","title":{"rendered":"The babysitter…."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>….is one of the unsung jobs in the herd but, in fact, it’s an important job and apparently something of an honor.<\/p>\n

Currently that position is being filled by that young steer\u00a0, not even a year old, with four of his charges.\u00a0 Several more\u00a0 are just out of camera range.<\/p>\n

Normally, it’s an older cow that stays with the very young calves while the herd is off grazing.\u00a0 Clearly that cow has power of attorney to control and even discipline those assigned to her.\u00a0 When a calf is first born, her mother keeps her close by and doesn’t return to the herd for several days.\u00a0 That’s the important bonding process and where the calf learns about survival in a sometime hostile world.<\/p>\n

But when mom decides the baby is ready, they set out from their isolated corner of the field and go back to the others.\u00a0 It is then that the babysitter takes over for hours at a time.\u00a0 As the calf gets older it, too, pretends to graze and gradually widens the area in which it roams.<\/p>\n

Why the main herd has decided to appoint this young steer their babysitter we do not understand.\u00a0 He’s always been very good to the youngsters and they are affectionate with him.\u00a0 Now, no matter where they are in the pasture, when it’s time to relax they just naturally gravitate to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

….is one of the unsung jobs in the herd but, in fact, it’s an important job and apparently something of an honor. Currently that position is being filled by that young steer\u00a0, not even a year old, with four of his charges.\u00a0 Several more\u00a0 are just out of camera range. Normally, it’s an older cow that stays with the very young calves while the herd is off grazing.\u00a0 Clearly that cow has power of attorney to control and even discipline those assigned to her.\u00a0 When a calf is first born, her mother keeps her close by and doesn’t return to the herd for several days.\u00a0 That’s the important bonding process and where the calf learns about survival in a sometime hostile world. But when mom decides the baby is ready, they set out from their isolated corner of the field and go back to the others.\u00a0 It is then that the babysitter takes over for hours at a time.\u00a0 As the calf gets older it, too, pretends to graze and gradually widens the area in which it roams. Why the main herd has decided to appoint this young steer their babysitter we do not understand.\u00a0 He’s always been very good to the youngsters and they are affectionate with him.\u00a0 Now, no matter where they are in the pasture, when it’s time to relax they just naturally gravitate to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}