Cows Gone Bad

At 4:00 this morning I heard cows mooing. The sound kept getting closer and closer. Finally I woke David up and said, “That sounds like the cow is right outside our window!” We quickly got out of bed and headed for the back door. I switched on the porch light as David peered out the kitchen window. I knew we were in trouble when I heard him say, “Good grief!”

We opened the back door to find about 50 cattle milling around in our back yard. They were mooing and munching their way over our flower beds and around the in-ground cistern. We started making noises and waving our arms to shoo them away. They obliged, loudly mooing their objections to leaving this new corral.

David worried that they had eaten up the flowers in his new nursery bed, but it was too dark to check it out just then. At daylight we went out to survey the damage. Apparently we caught the bovine marauders before they had time to chow down on our flowers. They did leave us plenty of muddy hoof prints and cow patties to remind us of their visit. The herd apparently had quite a party in the field across the road from us. The maize plants were about two feet high at bedtime. By daylight there was nothing taller than six inches. The entire field will have to be replanted.

The farm manager was not happy to hear about the cows gone bad. He pays a worker to watch them and prevent such outings. I wonder if the worker’s name is Blue—you know, Little Boy Blue?