Bullet to the Brain

Sad-eyed Joe



Cattle are generally raised for meat or milk. Longhorns are raised for meat, hide, horn and skull, although a significant percentage also end up as front-of-the-pasture ornaments, with some additional use found found as outcross stock, parade, pet and rodeo bulls.

Longhorns have long horns, and if you are raising them, you do not value free-thinkers. A longhorn with an independent streak is more than a handful; it can be a real liability. And so if a longhorn starts to "vote independent," it tends to be "liberated" from life a little earlier than if it had learned to color between the lines.

And so it is with some amusement that I occasionally read the "backstory" on individual Dickinson Cattle Company skulls in order to find out the nature of their transgressions. A small sampling of the descriptions that are written up (I think) by Kirk Dickinson, who is a Jack Russell terrier owner:

• Sad Eye Sam: This dreamer steer longed for the days he would become a herd sire. When the main bull was doing his thing, Sam wanted to be right between the bull and the cow. His visionary ideas caused him to be available as a skull today.
  


• Sparky: Unlike his name, he wasn't very bright. Sparky was raised in Pittsworth, NC. His owner raised tobacco and also preached at a small country chapel. When Sparky single handedly trashed a small marijuana patch behind a local volunteer fire department garage, his life was on the cutting edge of evisceration. His skull will hang obediently on your wall... unless someone lights up a weed.
  


• Don: This steer was just plain greedy. He stole milk from the other cows. He was not satisfied with just his mother's milk. He tried to get between the herd bull and his cow and that didn't work. He would stand side-ways parallel to the feed bunk preventing the others from getting feed, then he would eat it all. Once he chewed up a garden hose to this own water trough. It flooded his feed lot and every critter had to endure bull mud for days. He did one other thing that Bill Clinton would have even been ashamed of, and that did it.
  


• Pride: This steer was purchased at a Texas auction and represented to be very gentle. His new owner lived near Kansas City. One day, Pride was captured four miles from Liberty in a mobile home park work out ring. His uncontrollable attitude got him syndicated into one pound packages of lean grind. His skull will stay on the wall where it is placed.
  


• Rue Paul Bull: This young bull always acted a little funny. The tone of his bawl, the way he walked, and the way he wagged his tail at the other bulls. When he was turned with the cows, he walked the fence looking toward the bulls. The cows complained and almost tore up a corral. The other bulls made horrible jokes about him. He was part Watusi.