Cow Bio - Spike

spike in his blue period

So my cousin's cousin is a middle school teacher in Chicago. Hates it. Likes to sail. She decided that her best option for spring break was to come visit her Aunt and Uncle at the farm. Thems my Aunts and Uncle too, but they were hers first.
One of her stated goals was to see a calf born. And barring that, she wanted to pet one. Petting newborn baby Angus calves is a very difficult thing to do. The mother cows protection instincts make them as dangerous as bulls. This was explained to her before she was let loose on the herd.
She calls me one afternoon from the pasture to tell me that she had been sitting and petting a calf for over half an hour. She says she's worried that it has no mother because no one had come over to bother her.
I rolled my eyes (through the phone, special trick) and assured her that the mother was just off being entertained by a bale of hay. Three quarters of an hour later and I've finally made it out to where she is.
The calf is still lounging about. Doesn't seem to care much for moving anything other than it's big brown eyes. Because she's concerned, I am very unconcerned. I shall show her my masterful farmer touch with the bovine line. I scare it to its feet and it scampers towards the herd. Ha ha, Farmer Drew is farmerly!
We watch it run to the nearest cow. She kicks it. It runs to the next cow. She bowls it over with her head. It runs to the next cow. She kicks it down and swings her head around to snort at it. After 20 minutes of watching the thing get rejected from every udder it tries, I admit we have a problem. She gives him a name. Spike. Then I shrug my shoulders and climb back into my car.
Every couple of hours I go back up and make sure he's alive. I try to pick a mother for him out of the crowd, but my choices don't fare any better than his own. Chad and Rusty join me on one such venture. We walk back. We find Spike sitting alone. We watch him sit there. Chad asks me what exactly we're back in the field to do. I shrug. Don't know. Never had a mother not bond with it's child. Rusty posits the only theory I've heard that makes any sense. Twins. One the mother accepted, one not so much.
I never did find Spike a mother. I don't know where he finds sustenance actually. I guess he steals his drinks from the more forgiving cows. Skipping from teat to teat, trying all the flavors the milk bags have to offer. Have to hand it to him, he's a smart one, that Spike. He came real close to dying around the time he was noticed. Now he's just as active as any other. Though he probably won't grow as fast having missed out on the cholostrum days.

She never did get to see a calf born. Pity that.