Ronnie Ray: A good cow dog gets the job done

Editor’s Note: This is the third part in a series.

Roselyn Silva had a big Red Angus bull in her heifer corral. The bull got mean and obnoxious. He needed to go. She tried several times to get him out of the pen and loaded on a trailer.

Every time, he pushed and bullied his way until he got free and back into the friendly confines of the corral that he now claimed as his own. He did not like intruders. He made it difficult to work the other cattle as he became more possessive, aggressive and outright mean. Roselyn knew the bull had to go.

My dad was there one morning loading a few cows to take to the auction. She told him of her fear of the bull. She said, “The bull is impossible to load, I am going to find somebody to shoot him. Then we can drag him out and salvage the meat.” She was worried about how tough the meat would be and had decided to give it away.

Dad said, “Roselyn, that bull weighs over a ton. He is worth more than $1,000. I can load that bull!” She told him not to be an old fool: “The bull is dangerous, and you are too old to be trying to load him.”

When she said, “too old” and “impossible,” the words lit a fire in Dad’s belly. He offered to bet her $100 that he could get the bull loaded. In the end, she agreed to pay him $50 and a cold drink if he could load the bull into a trailer. She refused the wager, fearing he may do something dangerous in his attempt to win a bet.

Dad told Roselyn he would be back later in the day to load the bull. He delivered the cattle in the trailer to Madera, then came back to my place to get me and our dog Yogi.

We loaded the dog between us in the front seat. He liked to sit there and watch out the window. It made him feel much more important than a regular old dog in the back of the pickup.

On the way, we talked about our strategy, making a plan. We knew that if our first attempt failed, the bull was a fast learner and once he knew our goal, he would not put himself in the same position again.

We backed the trailer up to the gate, opened the corral gate and opened our trailer gate. The bull saw the trailer as an intruder. He bellowed and pawed the dirt as he went to threaten the trailer not to come into his domain. He bellowed loudly at the trailer as if it were alive and could be threatened. He even went so far as to butt his head into the floor of the open trailer gate. “Perfect,” dad said, “put Yogi on him.” I told Yogi, “Get him.”

We expected the dog to bite the bull’s back hoof and the bull would bound into the trailer. Our best thought- out strategy backfired. Yogi bit the heel of the bull, but rather than jump into the trailer, he spun to meet the dog head on. Yogi was on his own. We were not about to enter the pen. Just as the mad bull lowered his head to attack the dog, Yogi buried his teeth in the bull’s nose.

The pain of the bites on both his heel and his bleeding nose changed the bull from offense to defense. He saw the trailer as a way to protect himself from the dog. He jumped in the trailer and quickly turned his rear end to the front of the trailer.

Now he only had to guard his face against an attack from the dog. As Yogi growled and threatened the large red beast, the bull backed farther into the trailer and we closed the trailer gate. Mission accomplished. We took credit for loading the mean bull, but it was the quick reaction of a good dog with good instincts that got it done!

This story was originally published October 21, 2014 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Ronnie Ray: A good cow dog gets the job done."