The Undulating Path

My confidence goes up and down all the time with these yaks. I feel like I gain confidence, but then Dusty charges me a few times and I’m back to square one. They are mostly friendly, but they are also youthful and do crazy sporadic things. One time they ran past me from behind and its horn hit my elbow, which left a bruise for several days. From that point on I started carrying a stick. It looks like it’s a broken shovel handle or something, I hold it in one hand and the treat bucket in the other hand, this way they give me a bit of a perimeter. I gently sway the stick side to side behind me so they don’t get too close. But sometimes in the morning when I brush them, Dusty is just so mean to me.

I was feeling particularly nervous one day, and Ganesh was holding Georgie and I asked him to put the yaks in the coral. I thought Ganesh would hand the baby to me, but to my surprise he didn’t. He just walked right on in the field, baby in arm, called the yaks, told them to go in the coral, they obediently did as told, and then we closed the gate and walked away. I thought…Okay, how pathetic am I? Ganesh can do it while holding the baby and I can’t even do it without a baby. So I could easily get dejected by that but I chose to be empowered, like, hey if he can do it with the baby then I gotta be able to do this. So I confidently put them in the coral a few days. Then last night happens.

Last night, I went out there with my little stick, they were following like they usually do, and started to trot around front to go in the coral. Rocky just went on in because he’s sweet like that, doesn’t give me any grief. Dusty stops right at the gate opening. I tell her to go, but she doesn’t budge. I just brought the stick stationary behind her leg, thinking she will feel it there and take a step forward. But instead she kicked my stick and it flew up pretty close to my head and landed about 30 feet behind me. I couldn’t believe it. I yelled at her and told her to go in, but she didn’t. I told her she was stupid because doesn't she know she has to go in the coral to get the treats? Meanwhile, Rocky is losing his patience wanting the treats and he knows Dusty is hanging up the operation, so he rams into her with his horns, but the wrong direction, ultimately kicking her out, farther away from the coral. It all worked out in the end but it was so nerve wracking, I was pretty freaked out after that.

The next morning Dusty was the meanest ever during our brushing. She was trying to charge me every few minutes, luckily she was tied up. But now I’m dejected again. I wanted to bonk her on the nose, but I couldn’t reach her nose without getting in the horn range. I’m thinking to carry a squirt bottle and spritz them with water in their face when they act up.

I called my neighbor to ask if she knows anything or knows anyone who knows anything about cows, figuring that's as close as I'm going to get to a Yak out here. She said she had seven cows throughout her life, and she was like, “I know exactly how you feel, it’s so horrible. I used to be so exhausted after a few minutes of working with the cows because it was so terrifying I’d have to take a nap afterward.” But she says they can sense your fear and they know they can walk all over you when you are nervous, so that sucks. She said to brush them two or three times a day and try to make it a pleasant experience. That was about it. I suppose I’m on the path...treacherous and winding, but on it nonetheless.