the biggest and the rankest

 i know this wont fit in with everyones idea of a cowboy story, but this realy did happen.
    when i closed down the spur feeding company in san tan arizona i was at a loss for work. the cattle industry was in a unprecidented slump. feedlots were going broke right and left and the ones who were surviving had cut back to a skeleton  operation. there i sat with 3 kids and a wife with little to no prospects. one after noon the phone rang and when i answered the voice on the other end was a old friend who i hadent heard from in quite a while. he was working with a group of feeders who were going to reopen the old swift packing plant in tolleson. would i be intrested in being the cattle coordinater and yard boss. i explained my ignorance of packing houses but he said it didnt matter, no one involved had a clue what they were doing so i would fit right in. so why not, i hadnt any thing better going on.
      when i got to work the first day i found a world as ailien as mars.  the corrals and ally ways were all concrete. no horses. second everything you did was governed by a federal vet.  all education no common sense.  after four or five months i had sorted enough young men who were willing to work afoot and put up with the rules imposed on us. one of which was a little tough to meet. if you had to kill a animal out side the plant you had 45 minutes to get the carcas into the plant. if not they(the vet) would TANK  the whole animal.
   every day we faced with a new set of problems in handling 1000 pound cattle who were stirred up from being choused onto trucks and hauled to our facility then choused some more to satisfy the vet they were healthy before they were killed.  as time went on i came to agree with a lot of the rules, it was just the implementation of them that was bad.
       on this particular day a load of mexican cattle came off the truck, with them a large mexican holstien steer. this steer left the truck running, jumped the first gate, crashed into a pen of herford steers, ran through them jumped the fence and scrambled into the truck yard at a wild mad run. now the plant was surrounded with a twelve foot chain link fence with barb wire in top, so i wasnt to concerned about ole mex. he would find a quiet corner cool off and we would bring him back. WRONG!!  that steer trotted along the fence for a few minutes then charged it and laid it down for a hundred feet.  91 st avenue was just on the otherside of the fence and ole steer set out down the middle toward tolleson , hooking at passing cars and kicking at anything he passed. i had run into the scale house, grabbed a rifle and started for the front gate as fast as i could run. i heard a yell behind me and saw the kill floor super commin on a big forklift. as he pull up i jumped on the fender and we set out in pursuit.
    by the time we caught up with this steer he was long totten  down the main drag in tolleson.  as we rolled up next to him he rammed the fork lift and tried buttin the front tire. i felt like john wayne on the fender of the 51 chevey pickup trying to loop a rhino!! i had my rifle ready but wasnt getting a clean shot. then ole steer stopped to fight, presenting a perfect target of his head. i put the first round right in the middle of his fore head a inch above his eyes. he shook his head  and bellered!! i looked at my driver who was staring in disbelief.  the second i had reloaded the steet charged the forklift and started crawling up on the fender with me!!i put the second round behind his left ear at about 5 paces. that dropped him. we cut his throat, loaded him on the forks and set off for the plant marking down the hour . when we arrived at the plant  the vet was waitting  at the kill floor door. we handed him the kill card with the time of death written on it. he slowley walked around the steer, picked up a leg and just stalled as long as he could. finally my friend hollered time was wasting. the vet looked up and stated he thought time had run out!! a fight like i never saw before  ensued. yelling cussing and waving of hands. when it was over the steer was hung and processed and the vet got a box of new york strip steaks!!