Renegade!

About two weeks ago B had to work late. We chatted on the way home via cell phone, of course, and he was just about home when he exclaimed, “Holy shit, there is a cow in the road!” It was a black cow, and given that it was dark, although we live in the country, the animal suddenly appearing in front of his rapidly moving automobile was somewhat of a shock to him.

We had an idea who owned the cow, and that person does not actually live on the premesis. He does have tenants who live in the house on the land, and B knocked on the door and told the tenant. The tenant said that he did, in fact, know that the cow had escaped, as it was a “jumper.” I had seen the cow jump before, or at least one of the cattle, as I drove by and stopped to tell the tenant at the time (not the same tenant).

So, the next morning I was doing chores at 5:30 am, it was still pitch black outside, and I was checking the waterer to make sure it had not frozen over. All of the animals were still inside munching on breakfast, and I heard a noise on the east side of the barn, near the manure pile. It sounded larger than a cat, and it occurred to me that it could be a deer. I happened to have a flashlight in-hand, and shined it toward the noise. I saw two large, glowing eyes staring back at me, framed by two sets of eartags. It was the renegade cow! She had come quite a distance, maybe a mile. I went around the fence to where she was, shooing her toward home, when suddenly the flashlight’s battery died! There I was, dead flashlight in-hand, in the middle of my yard, so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I could hear the cow, as she wandered off in the wrong direction—going deeper into our property. It was all I could do to stumble back in the general direction of the house and get ready for work.

A few days later M was home from school sick. I stayed with her, and decided to finish up some chores that afternoon. I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes (we don’t have a dishwasher) when I saw old Boss just wander up the driveway, like she was coming for her scheduled 4:00 pm visit! It was just one of those “this could only be happening to me” moments. Have you ever had a cow come visiting? Walk up your driveway when you were just doing the dishes? Strange, eh?

When the bus dropped L off a few minutes later, I said, “Hey, there is a cow in our yard, back in the back. Let’s go try and shoo her back home.” He went out with me, and she would not be deterred. She wanted nothing to do with us, but wouldn’t go in the direction we wanted her to go. When we cornered her, she ended up jumping a fence (should not have been a surprise to us) but toward the inside of the property, not toward her home. L intelligently pointed out that we should just leave her, as she would go where she wanted with her ability to jump.

The next morning she was still there. It was a Saturday, and I figured that I should get her home, lest the farmer think I was attempting to steal his cow. So I opened the gate, and chased her out. She was reluctant to leave once she was in the open yard, so I had to shoo her all the way down the driveway and out to the road, where she moseyed on home. I heard someone drive along and honk at her, too, so I know she was just carrying on back the way she came.

Fortunately, it was in the day, so she was not creating a traffic hazard as she was when Bill first saw her on the road.

The next night, the farmer gathered up all of his cows and took them away. He rotates his pastures over the winter, so it was not unexpected. But it was a good thing she got home in time.