Moving Inch Worms & Cheetahs

On the 15th we as a family went out with the horses to gather and haul some cattle to town. (Sell them.)  The first bunch that we moved took a lot of time.  My Paradise just wouldn't go, her being a colt, I couldn't do much with her.  The cattle slowly went as though they were inch worms and finally we were at the pens.  There, Dad and Mom sorted off some old cows and some calves, including a dear cow, Reddy.  She was a cow that would eat out of your hands and let you pet her.  It was kind of hard to let her go.  It is part of ranch life, though.  So I fed her her last piece of cake and said good bye, holding back the tears.  Dad, Big J., and I then went to another set of pens to gather some cattle.  Mom and Little J. went to get dinner- hamburgers and fries.  Dad and Big J. gathered up a bull as I took the pickup to the next pens that we were going to sort.  I listened to classical music while I waited for Mom and Little J. to get there.  Dad and Big J. also got there right as we were getting our tail-gate picnic ready.  We ate the filling meal and got back to work.  As we gathered the next bunch, they got spooked at two bulls fighting and ran a ways past the gate.  With a little loping of horses and hollering, we got through the gate and from there the cattle ran a little more.  So we were kind of moving "cheetahs".  Once the cattle were penned, Dad and Mom once again started sorting off the ones to go to town.  We 3 kids found stuff to do; I sat and watched or helped in any way that I could, Big J. and Little J. found sticks and made guns out of them.  When the sorting was done, Dad made a few trips to drop cattle off at places.  On the last trip, Mom went and left us kids at the pens and we played slaves.  You might be thinking that we are rough kids... I mean playing gun fights and slaves.  I guess we are in some ways, but we really are good kids.  Anyway~ when Dad and Mom got back, we loaded up and went back to the first pens.  There, we moved what cattle we had left, back to the pasture they came from.  That went alright, but my horse, Paradise, was hungry and wouldn't do what I told her to.  Dad had to lead me some bit.  Now, the sun was setting and it was close to 7.  We had been outside all of that day.  It was also starting to cool off.  We got home and put up the horses, then ate supper and got things ready for bed.  We slept outside under the starry sky and yes, we had a few cats in our sleeping bags with us.  Dad said that we had been outside over 24 hours (counting sleeping).  Great day I would say.  We sure have fun here on the ranch!