ROSEBURG, Ore. – Casey Thorp knows all about getting down and dirty. Not as marketing director of Cascade Community Credit Union, but in her other incarnation as a livestock brand inspector for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. She's juggled the dual life for four years. “I'd ship cattle from 5 in the morning until noon, then run home and get the cow smell off me,” she said. “Then I'd come into the (credit union) office in my heels and suit from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m.” Thorp, who graduated with an agriculture degree from the University of California at Davis, said she missed working with livestock when she moved to Oregon. “I wasn't getting any horse riding or any poop exposure,” she said. “I was dying to get a livestock fix and I just wasn't getting dirty enough.” So she applied for and landed a job as a livestock brand inspector with the state, moonlighting during the summer cattle shipping season and then on weekends at the local livestock yard. Thorp explained that whenever cattle are sold or shipped to feedlots, or horses leave the state for a show or to race, a brand inspection is required. A brand, which has to be registered with the state, identifies the owner of the animal. Thorp said her many of the cattle producers she came in contact with were also members of the credit union. They often had a difficult time placing her when she first showed up. “I guess it was hard to recognize me in a baseball cap, Carhart jeans, covered in cow manure,” she said. But ever the marketing person, Thorp often would ask them about the credit union's promotional materials which she crafted. Thorp recently took a hiatus from her livestock work – although she remains on call with the state – to spend more time with her family. She said she eventually intends to return to livestock brand inspection work while still working at the credit union. Thorp said her livestock work may have helped get things moving along at the president's office at the credit union. “The joke is I'm going to bring my cattle prod in and electrify him if he doesn't do the things that are on his list of things to do,” she laughed. “That's always a good incentive not to get shocked.” – [email protected]