Moo

My morning went something like this...

I was awoken by the whiny of our horse. The whiny was unusually loud and distressed. Surprised that my wife was not also woken up, I went out real quick in my robe and slippers to see what the heck was going on.

The horse was staring out past the wash into the desert. Coyotes? Who knows. After a quick survey out towards where the horse was looking I saw nothing moving. I resigned myself to accepting it was "who knows what" and it certainly wasn't going to delay my breakfast any longer. I went back inside to eat.

Solaced by a bowl of cereal in my hands, I went into the living room to open the blinds that face towards the east. One of my favorite things is to watch the sun rise and watch the birds at the feeder and the rabbits and such that come to drink from the large ceramic dish we have water dripping into.

When I raised the blinds, though, there was no gentle dripping. The spigot was on about half blast and water was going everywhere. There was a huge puddle and water was running in a rivulet across the baked ground looking for lower altitudes. We are on a shared well and I feared that we may have been draining the well down to nothing.

Racing out the front door (so much for my bowl of solace getting soggy) I went out and immediately discovered the cause of all this: cows.

There were cow tracks, cow poop, cow damage to a lawn ornament and shrubbery. The tracks were near the bottom step of the front door and also by the back door. Since our land borders open free range land, we are prone to getting visits from the free range cattle. But cows are stupid and rude. There wasn't even the common courtesy of a call before they came over. Maybe they tried to knock but I didn't hear them.

My wife has seen them since then in our yard. They can thank the Lord my wife is a vegetarian without a bow and arrow and a deep freeze.