La vie est belle

I live as many of us do in a rural, agricultural environment where a fair bit of mutual support goes on. In the early hours of this morning, about 1 am, I was roused from my slumbers by an energetic banging on my bedroom window. Having shoved on a dressing gown and half opened one eye, I discovered my neighbour, Jean- Louis. He is a one man farmer and one of his cows was struggling to give birth. I am getting to be an old hand at this so it was on with my scruffiest clobber and off into the night. The cow was standing patiently in a barn whose gloom was barely lifted by a 40 watt bulb high in the rafters. The entertainment was provided by a pigeon that ignored the wide open door but preferred to make us duck as it swooped about. J-L clicked into Herriot mode and started to rummage about in the cow's nether regions until he eventually persuaded a pair of forefeet to emerge. This sort of procedure is always a wonderful way to learn some of the more colourful language of your region. The next step was to attach a cord and a sort of winch arrangement and to await the instruction to pull. J-L made sure that the calf's head was where it should be and I pulled. Mother cow decided that this was the right time to lie down nearly taking J-L with her. Anyway, seconds later out popped a male calf. a quick dousing with half a bucket of water and he was breathing.Mum quickly got on with cleaning him up with a .good licking. Within just a few minutes he was making an effort to stand - amazing isn't it? I refused an offer of some eau de vie and headed off home to bed. I'm just about to go round for a coffee and to check on progress. Bloody hell, it's starting to rain again!