cows

We have had several ununusual animal adventures. In our first house, the neighbors had llamas, and they would occasionally be standing in the middle of the road when you rounded our corner. At that same house, we went out one morning to go to church and our dog (Strider, at the time) went crazy barking at a MONKEY in our tree. We lived quite close (walking distance) to our zoo, so that was the first call I made. It wasn't theirs, but they were aware of someone close by that had a pet monkey that often got lose. I called, but by then the monkey had taken off. I don't know if they ever reunited.

This was the view out our bedroom window when we woke (or I woke and then woke Stan) on Saturday m0rning. I first saw just one calf, then another, then mom, then another calf. We both grabbed phones. I took pictures and Stan took a video. In the video, he captured mom, with her back to us, turning her head and staring right at us for a while and then trotting off--one calf following. The others grazed at the edge of the woods until I went out another door and spooked them.

They live in the pasture through the woods--not very far. This is not their first visit to our yard. Before we built here, we lived next door. (What can I say--we like the neighborhood and neighbors) Anyway, one day I was on the riding more and Stan was pushing as I noticed a cow standing next to the pool. The pool had a substantial pool cover that people could walk on, but cows--not so much. I kept motioning to Stan and mouthing "a cow". Stan's hearing is not so good, and apparently, his lip reading is not so hot either. He thinks I'm saying "an owl", gives me a that's nice look, and moves on. Finally though, he sees him/her too. He gets off and shoos him toward home.

The owners say they can't keep them in the fence and are very apologetic, but I don't mind their occasional visit. One calf was in our woods this morning as Maggie and I walked. He didn't mind us walking 4-5 feet from him on our path and Maggie just sort of stopped and looked a couple of times. Of course, she and Darby ( much more adventurous when together) have been over in the cow pasture a few times, so she couldn't convince me she had never seen one of these before.

The owner visited for a bit last night. He says they are considering an electric fence. I sort of prefer his wife's suggestion on the phone that they just paint their phone numbers on all of them.