Susie

I’m now back home from vacation. I had gone up to Pennsylvania for nine days to visit with my parents and some other good friends and family members. It was a nice break from my normal routine. I definitely feel like I “got away” for a while, but am glad to be back home in Florida.

As you may have seen on my step Dad’s photo blog, I was able to go on a nature shoot with him, his brother, Willard, and my cousin, Amy. Amy’s boyfriend, Justin, also tagged along as well. It had probably been nine years since I last seen Amy in person and it was a very nice reunion. Justin seemed like a very cool guy as well. You’ll be seeing a few of the images I captured that afternoon, later this week.

First though, I wanted to post one of my personal favorites from my trip, this image of “Susie”, the orphan calf.

It has been a tradition of mine in recent years, that every time I visit my parents, I always try to get down to visit my step Dad’s, Dad, “Carl”. Carl is an 80 year old widower who lives a simple, retired life on his farm. He’s full of interesting stories and always lets me drive his John Deere Gator around his fields for an annual tour of his cow heard. Carl’s cows are pretty much his pets. Each year there’s usually a story within the herd that results in cows having such names as “the twins” or just regular first names, such as in “Susie’s” case.

Susie’s mother died a few days after she had given birth, leaving Susie without a Mom to feed her milk. Carl has come to the rescue though, and has the young calf on a bottle regiment each day. As Carl headed out to feed Susie the day I was visiting him, I spotted Susie sticking her head out one of the cracks in the side of the old barn. I could not get to the shot at that moment, but we were able to recreate it later when we drove the Gator over to that side of the barn.