Estrus Follies

I just lived through another bout of CloverHeat. With Clover, there is no doubt at all that she is in heat. With Ginger, I was never quite sure. This is not the case with Clover! She will continuously bleat her loudest. I usually hear her first thing in the morning, thinking that she has been mortally wounded. She must be dying, yelling like that! She goes into heat about three or four days after Ginger does.

The first day Clover went into heat this last time, she completely lost her mind when I left their yard after evening feeding time. I was walking away from the gate, she was yelling, and the next thing I knew, she ran right past me in the people yard. She just ran through our yard, across the street toward their pasture. When she reached the pasture, she screeched to a halt and looked around, like she was suddenly wondering "What am I doing? Where am I going? What now?" Then she ran furiously back to me and stopped. Then she ran up our yard and jumped on a table. I tell you, that poor girl is having a hard time of it. I felt so bad for her. I grasped her collar and led her back into her yard - she walked with me without a fight. I locked a second lock on the gate, thinking that she must have pushed her way through the bottom of the gate. Two steps away, I decided to look back - and there she was, leaping gracefully over the four foot fence. I had to chase her down, then again, led her back to her yard. Unfortunately, she and Tulip and Juniper had to spend the rest of the day and night closed up inside the barn. The next morning I put up an extender at the part where she jumped over the fence and hoped for the best. She checked it out and even looked like she might try it, but I could see that she had decided it wouldn't work.

She could have easily jumped over other parts of the fence, but she didn't try. I don't know why, but I'm glad of it. By that evening, she had visibly calmed down, and the next day, she was back to normal. I only have fifteen more days until the madness begins again.