From the Featherduster




Baxter Black once wrote an

ode to the cow, and how we expect a lot from her. Well, he was correct on that one. Those old girls bring tears to one’s

eyes. Sometimes they are tear of rage, but more often, tears of thankfulness and sometimes, tears of compassion.

We had a set of heifers one

year that were wonderful mothers. (Not the ones who beat the heck out of anything they deemed untoward, like the turkeys I had just bought, or the cats or dogs or anything that crossed their path).

These were gentle sweet heifers but just wonderful moms. When we sold the calves in the fall, one of them went berserk looking for her calf. We didn’t think anything of it until Joe Painter called me and said we had a very determined looking heifer who was clear down to the end of the River road where it hooks onto the Bullock Road. He said she was jumping auto gates and was headed out! This was coming from what is now Ty’s house by the Bullock Hall!

By the time I caught up with her, she was nearly to old Bullock. She stopped as I quietly got around her and she just looked at me. She was so anxious. It made me cry and you can say I am crazy, but when I told her “He’s not here. He is gone,” she mutely started heading back and I trailed her home. It brings tears to my eyes, yet.

When I got home, Cole, who was only a little kid asked me, “Mom, what would make her do such a thing?”

My answer was “Because she is a mom. If anyone tried taking you away from me I would smash them. I would crush them and beat them and bash them in any way I could and if they got you away from me, I would not rest until I found you and they would HURT.”

He was silent for a moment and then said, “Mom, it’s a good thing you are not a cow!”

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