THE GREAT COW ADVENTURE

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Do white cows count?




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The Family

I'm a life-long city girl who has a fascination with cows. Go figure! When I was about

four years old, my parents stopped by the side of the road so that I could see a man

milking a cow, up close and personal! That's the closest I've ever been until last week.

Our beach house is in a somewhat rural area, and I pass by several little farms on a

daily basis. One of them has some small pastures with a few cows. Over the years, I've

spotted new calves, from time to time, and enjoyed watching them grow. Last week,

the cows were all congregated at the fence, right next to the road. I had my camera

with me, so I decided to stop. I thought I might be lucky enough to snap a couple of

pictures before they wandered off. I pulled my car over into the grass and got out. I

assumed nobody was at home, since I guess I was trespassing! Much to my surprise,

the cows were perfectly happy to stand at the fence and pose for dozens of pictures.

They were completely unperturbed by my presence. They gently licked my hands with

their rough (and dirty) tongues.

I talked baby-talk to them, just like I do to my dogs. I melted at their sweet, gentle

eyes. There was a bull, two female cows and a male calf, who had the cutest little

horns that were just coming out.

Can you see his little horns?

I'm not sure how much time elapsed before {my now new friend} Debbie came out to

see who I was. The poor lady was in a panic, thinking I was from a humane society

and was going to report them for having a fence that needed to be repaired and

possibly have their cows taken away. I quickly introduced myself as a city-slicker, with

a vacation house nearby and apologized profusely for alarming her. I explained my

life-long love for cows and how I couldn't resist the opportunity to see them up close

and take pictures. She apologized that the sheriff's deputy was on the way to check

me out! Needless to say, she was relieved, but also somewhat baffled at my

fascination with her cows.

Pearl, the mama

Sam, the bull

No-Name Bad Boy, the escapee

She led me to a small corral behind the house, to show me a mother cow and her three-week old calf.

3 week old calf

As we stood and chatted, we suddenly looked behind us and saw that the older calf, in

the front pasture, had escaped! Having trampled down the fence, he was happily

grazing on wild flowers in the front yard, perilously close to the road. This was not

exactly new to her, but I was in a panic now! She told me to just try to keep him

moving away from the road, while she went to get a bucket of food to lure him back

into the pasture. {Hello! Did I mention I haven't had a lot of experience herding

cattle?} Long story short, we chased him all over the yard, with Debbie shaking the

bucket of feed and his Mama and Daddy (aka Pearl and Sam) calling him quite

frantically. He finally ran through the grandchildrens' play area, jumped over the

sandbox, kicking his legs out if we tried to get near him. Debbie opened the big gate

into the back pasture, and he finally ran in. Now, in the midst of all of this, the deputy

had arrived. I introduced myself to him and explained the situation. In fact, his

blowing the horn on the squad car was ultimately the impetus for the calf

to finally run away from the road. I was laughing so hard that I didn't get the final

"running of the bull" on film. Debbie lamented that we could have been on

"America's Funniest Home Videos"! When I told her that this had been one of the

most unforgettable experiences of my life, she shook her head in disbelief. She was

also nice enough to invite me to come visit again anytime. Thanks Debbie!