Well... even though the main Jessie's Journey fanfic isn't quite complete yet (just one more chapter to go, with some research still to do), one of the stories for this one-shot series was, so I thought I'd get it published a little earlier than planned! There won't be anything in that final chapter of the main fic that this is a spoiler for, so I figured maybe this could help fill the gap while I work on the other.

I'm going to be using this Roundup Ranch series as a place to post random one-shots (or maybe the occasional two-parter) that take place in the world established in Jessie's Journey. I love these characters too much to just stop writing about them, and I'm forever thinking up scenarios for them, so this is a way to keep that going. Plus, it gives me the freedom to jump around in time without having to stick to a strict timeline - all stories will still take place between the 1890s and 1920s, though. Each chapter will be titled with the month and year. I'm looking forward to exploring the kids at different ages, spending more time in their everyday lives, and taking the family on some new adventures!

While Jessie's Journey was co-written with PoetLaurie, this one is going to be written primarily by me. She still may be my sounding board on elements of the stories here and there, and this first chapter is one that she contributed to a while back. Any substantial co-author credits in future work will be mentioned in the notes. And I'll be adding pins on Pinterest for these stories, too - this one doesn't really need any, it's pretty self-explanatory, so I'll make note where to find them when I get to a chapter that needs illustrations.

As always, Toy Story doesn't belong to me. If it did, we'd be getting a 25th anniversary special like we did for the 20th back in 2015. Enjoy, and be sure to fave and follow so you don't miss any updates!


February 1903

Winter was starting to give way to spring on Roundup Ranch, and with the bright, warmer days came the promise of new calves in the Prides' dairy herd and a bountiful crop in the Lightyears' orange grove.

In anticipation of calving season, Woody made an exciting announcement to his young family. Penny, Bea, and Andy - who were seven, five, and four, respectively - would each get to name a newborn calf and take care of it as their very own. The little children quickly decided on Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail as the names for their prospective calves, The Tale of Peter Rabbit having been a gift to them the previous Christmas and a favorite bedtime story with their father.

"No Peter, please," Woody had interjected during the naming discussions, thinking back to his Marshal days and the Calico case against Stinky Pete.

The three little Prides anxiously awaited the day they could each see their new baby animals. Once born, they visited them often in their individual pens in the barn; and after the calves had been trained by Woody and Slink in how to drink their milk from pails, the children were guided by the men in how to feed them, as well as gently brush them. Looking at it as more of an adventure than a lesson in responsibility, Penny, Bea, and Andy eagerly followed after their father and the ranch foreman, doing whatever they could to help - Bea, especially, was becoming attached to the young Jersey cow that was in her charge.

Early one morning, not long after the children had begun their caretaking of the calves, Bo rolled over in bed, and her eyes fluttered open as she tried to process a sound she wasn't quite certain she heard. Laying silently in the predawn darkness, she soon heard the mysterious noise a second time.

"Was that a cow?" When Woody didn't rouse, she nudged her husband's shoulder. "Honey, did you hear that moo?"

"I'm always hearing moos," he mumbled groggily, his eyes still closed.

"No, it was a louder one. Are the windows open? Did one get out in the night?" Bo sat up in bed, and her brow dipped as she listened intently. "There it is again. I swear it sounds like it's coming from the house."

Woody didn't answer. With a frustrated groan Bo rose from the bed, sliding her feet into her slippers and grabbing her dressing gown as she exited into the hall. Moments later, a shout finally jolted Woody from his peaceful repose.

"BEATRICE ROSE PRIDE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

Woody flew out of bed and rushed to his daughters' bedroom, his hair mussed, dressed in the longjohns he had been sleeping in. Standing in the doorway slack jawed, he was as dumbstruck as his wife. "Is that a cow?"

"That most certainly is a cow. In the house. Upstairs, no less!"

Woody ran his fingers through his hair, trying not to lose his temper. "Bea, what's this all about?"

Next to five-year-old Bea, a young calf lay curled up in her bed. The little girl stared back at her parents, equally perplexed by their reaction as they were by her companion. "Mopsy was lonely in the barn by herself."

Bo exhaled heavily. "I'm sure she wasn't lonely, with all the other cows to keep her company."

"But Daddy said she was my cow. I want to be with her. Buster sleeps with Penny."

"Buster's a dog, sweetheart. That's different," her father tried to explain.

Bea cocked her head. "How come?"

While Woody and Bo attempted rather unsuccessfully to reason with their stubborn child, Penny slipped out of her own bed, out of the house, and over to her aunt and uncle's house next door. The ring of the doorbell was answered by Buzz, wearing his robe and a very concerned expression.

"Penny, what's wrong? Is someone sick, or hurt?"

"No, but Daddy might need help. Bea brought a calf into the house!"

"Oh, that's good," Buzz let out the breath he'd been holding. "Wait, what?"

"Daddy's trying to lead it down the stairs, but it won't go!"

"I think your Daddy knows how to handle a calf. He can always carry it."

Jessie appeared behind her husband on the stair landing, tying the belt of her dressing gown and chuckling at the conversation she was overhearing. Just then, Memo shuffled out of his room and toward the top of the stairs in his pajamas, rubbing tired eyes. Jessie reached to pick up her sleepy, four-year-old son, who was taking the steps slowly down to meet her. "Well, since we're all up, might as well see this circus for ourselves. C'mon!"

When the Lightyears arrived with Penny at the Prides', and saw the scene that was unfolding in the hall, Buzz and Jessie couldn't help but smirk at each other. Woody was positioned in front of the befuddled calf on the stairs, trying with all his might to lure it downwards.

"Need a hand, cowboy?" Buzz said with a tickled grin.

"I'm fine," groaned Woody. "If Bea got her to go up, why won't she go down?"

Bo sighed from where she stood upstairs, with her three children watching nearby. "I told you, honey, just carry her down."

"What if she kicks the wall?"

"Plaster can be repaired, but we can't live with a cow in the house forever."

Defeated, Woody stooped and picked up the calf without a struggle, its spindly legs dangling. Quite a sight in his long underwear and cowboy boots, he trudged down the stairs, through the hall, and out the kitchen door in the direction of the barn. Bea tried to go after him, but Bo looked at her daughter sternly, and shook her head.

"D'ya need any help cleanin' up?" Jessie called up to her sister-in-law.

"No, all there is to do is change muddy sheets and wipe up these tracks on the floor - and figure out what to do with this one," Bo let out an exasperated laugh as she gestured to troublemaker Bea. "Thank you, though."

"Good luck!" replied Jessie with a chuckle, then she kissed the red-haired head nestled against her shoulder. "Let's get you back home, bud. We've got a funny story to tell Grampa after breakfast."


Several days later, a freshly-dressed Bo went to peek in her children's rooms before heading downstairs to start her morning chores. After first looking in on Andy, who wasn't yet awake, she then nudged the girls' door open a crack, only to find that while Penny lay sound asleep, Bea's bed was empty. Confused, she checked her vacant sewing room, then hurried downstairs, but all the lights were still off and there was no sign of her daughter. In a panic she raced back upstairs to make sure her eyes hadn't been playing tricks on her, but Bea's single-sized metal-frame bed was most definitely unoccupied.

"Woody!" she cried to her husband, who was shaving in the bathroom across the hall, "is Bea in there with you?"

"No," was the muffled reply through the half-closed door. "Why?"

"Bea's not here!"

He darted into his daughters' room, his face still half-covered in shaving-soap suds. "What do you mean she's not here?!"

"Look!" she pointed frantically at the pushed-aside sheets and quilt. "I searched the whole house. She's nowhere to be found!"

"What's the matter, Mama?" Penny propped herself up on her elbows, half asleep.

"Do you know where Bea is, sweet pea?" Bo pleaded.

"Uh uh," the girl shook her head. "She was here when I fell asleep."

Woody snapped his suspenders up over his tucked-in work shirt, and rested a hand on the small of his wife's back. "You stay here. I'll go look for her." He stepped back into the bathroom long enough to wipe the dwindling bubbles off his chin, then hastened down the stairs, where he found the back door unlocked and instantly had a hunch where his wayward daughter might be.

He was striding across the backyard, headed toward the barn, when he saw Slink silhouetted against the rising sun, coming his way with something in his arms.

"Lookin' for somethin'?" his friend grinned widely. "I found this strange calf in the barn this mornin'; pretty sure she belongs to you." He nudged the blanketed bundle he carried, and a drowsy face appeared.

"Bea!" Woody reached out to take his daughter, and hugged her close as she nuzzled against her father's shoulder. "We were so worried about you! What were you doing in the barn?"

"You said Mopsy couldn't sleep with me in my bed, so I slept with her in hers," the little girl explained simply, her voice thick in her barely-awake state.

Woody smiled at Bea, then exchanged an amused look with Slink. "Hey, thanks," he said to his friend, glancing at the silhouette of Bo moving about the kitchen. "You wanna come in for some coffee before we get to work?"

Slink waved his hand in dismissal, "Naw, thanks, I already had my fill at my place. See ya shortly?"

With a nod, Woody returned to his house, where Bo met him at the door, ecstatic in her relief. "Oh, Bea, min lskling!" she caressed her daughter's strawberry blond curls, then turned to her husband. "Where on earth was she?"

"I'll give you one guess," he laughed, stepping over the threshold.

Bo's fingers brushed a piece of hay in Bea's hair, and she instantly knew. "The barn?"

"Yup. Slink found her with Mopsy." The couple fought to suppress the mirth that threatened to overtake them.

Bea looked up at her mother, blinking at the light in the kitchen, and Bo smiled softly. "Little girls are supposed to sleep in their own beds. You gave Mama and Daddy a terrible fright."

The child reached up to rub her tired eyes. "But what if she misses me?"

"She'll be fine; she's got plenty of cow friends in the barn," Woody soothed. "It's not safe for you to sleep out there, little miss."

"Okay, Daddy," Bea yawned.

"C'mon," he adjusted his daughter's limp weight in his arms, "let's get you upstairs."

Once Bea was cozy in her bed, Woody joined Bo in the kitchen, where she was finishing her preparations for breakfast. As he grabbed a cup from the shelf and filled it with some of the piping hot coffee that had been brewing on the stove, she looked at him askance. "Your daughter."

He placed his free hand over his heart in mock surprise and hurt. "MINE? Although... I s'pose I can blame the Pride side a little," he chuckled. "She's got an awful lot of Jessie in her, that one, between her spunk and her love for critters. Shoulda known with the hair."

"Don't blame your sister," laughed Bo. "I suppose there's no harm in having one who keeps us on our toes."

Woody slipped an arm around his wife's waist and kissed her on the temple. "I'll head out to the store this afternoon and pick up some chain locks for the doors."


Historical Notes: Dairy calves are separated from their mothers fairly early on, and pail-fed milk so that the dairy farmer has more control of the milk the mama cows produce - as I understand it through my research, that is; I am by no means personally acquainted with dairy farming. 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' is a children's book by Beatrix Potter that was first published in October 1902, and is still popular today. Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter are the rabbit children in the classic story. Penny most likely would have been in school at age 7 - five months' yearly attendance was required between ages 6 and 14 - but it was easier not to mention them working around her school day; she would have taken care of her calf in the afternoons. This dilemma was inspired both by a video of a little girl smuggling a cow inside her house and reading that it's extremely difficult if not entirely impossible to get cows to go downstairs, even though they will go up with no trouble. Although I see Woody as being perfectly capable in handling his cattle within his dairy facility, having one in his house just throws him for a loop! XD