The mama cow was in labor, and she and her calf possibly were in danger. 

Jerry Savoie just didn’t know exactly what was going on. He was hundreds of miles away from his property at Cutoff, La. 

One of his employees was on the other end of the telephone line, reporting on how the situation was developing. And Savoie was dividing his attention between that mama cow and his White Alligator Racing motorcycle he was about to wrestle in NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series competition. 

Savoie put his head down on the counter in the lounge of is motorhome. He had seen this play out days before. 

And he was weary, anyway, from uninvited Ida, the last and most vicious of four hurricanes that barged mercilessly through La Fourche Parish in 13 months. He had driven his truck through the murky waters, saddened by the heaps of broken lumber and rubble that had been the homes of his neighbors. He had climbed his steep-pitched roof, repairing random damage, and slogged through mud and debris of his alligator farm to assess and fix as best he could the ripped off roofs from outbuildings. His airplane was battered. Wife Vonnie had jumped in to help preserve the alligator operation. “She’s the only one hatching eggs. Nobody was coming to work. We over there, trying to get the farm back online,” Savoie said. 

They had no power for days. The water supply was compromised. They even had to resort to bathing outdoors. Drag-racing fans sat in the grandstands and saw him on a quick and fast motorcycle and never would have had an idea in the world what he and Vonnie and their son Gerald had been living every minute of every day for weeks before. 

And then he had the mama cows – “I got the same group of cow mamas that have been having babies for about a week. I’m looking to make sure none of them’s in distress,” the 2016 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion said. Managing a finicky race bike was a piece of cake compared to keeping watch over 800 head of cattle. 

The insurance claims adjuster, a woman named Karen, arrived at Savoie’s place to gauge the damage Hurricane Ida left in her wake. She found Savoie in a muddy field, trying to help deliver a calf. 

“I was in there for two hours. Then she comes in there. She said her husband used to have a dairy farm,” Savoie said. 

And Karen The Claims Adjuster didn’t give a second thought to messing her hair or getting her professional clothing dirty or stained. She dropped to the ground and joined Savoie in trying to deliver the calf. “She was out there in the mud with us. She was working hard. She was a sweetheart. We worked till 9:30 that night.” He and Vonnie offered her a shower, fresh clothing, and fixed her supper – likely not the scenario she imagined when she came to the farm with insurance forms and a clipboard. But that’s what truly caring neighbors do for one another when folks need help in desperate situations.  

Unfortunately, the results in the field were not as comforting. Savoie somberly recalled the exercise: 

“His feet were out, but his head was twisted all the way back, like this,” he said, gesturing the grotesque angle at which the calf’s head was stuck. “I couldn’t get that son of a gun out. So I ended up shooting her. I cried. I lay on her. And I said, ‘I’m so sorry, Mama,’ because I bottle-fed that mama. She was a good one. I cried: ‘I’m so sorry.’ So I shot her, and I cut her open after she was gone. And the baby’s body came out, but the head was still wrapped up. I tried to pull it and the head wouldn’t come out. There was some type of lining, and that lining was wrapped around that head, and that son of a gun would not break loose. So I took my knife and I cut the lining and the head just came right on out. The baby was dead. I tell ya, man, I about had enough . . .” 

So he came out and raced at the FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex and at the Dodge//SRT Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With a twinkle back in his eye, he said, “I’ll teach all those young kids a lesson.” 

Just then, Savoie’s cell phone rang again. He grabbed it anxiously and listened intently to the news from the farm. 

This latest mama cow delivered her calf without a hitch. 

He hung up, and a satisfied grin spread across his face. And in almost a whisper, he said, “That’s the best part of being a cattleman.”