"Is the fact that you're speaking babytalk to me an indication you might be my friend?"
This morning I woke to loud plaintive mooing. One lone cow was in the pasture, upset at being separated from her friends, I guessed. The other cows had gone on to greener pastures, and I hope I'm not using that phrase figuratively.
Later, someone (or more likely, one of the cows) opened the gate, and her baby rejoined her. (It was the calf pictured above, and he looks just like his mama.) They ran toward each other—well, they sort of hopped, in the way cows do. Her tail was wagging back and forth. I'm sure that means the same in cow language as it does for dogs, which in English is: "Hey! Long time no see! Like, it's been five minutes! See how much I missed you? My butt can't stop wriggling!"
Cows are sociable creatures. One of the calves came to see what I was doing at the fence the other day, and one by one they all came over to see the crazy human and her whirring thing. I talked babytalk to them while I shot them with my Nikon.
I was wrong about them being girls, by the way. Some are clearly male. Maybe they're steers, and destined for someone's plate. I hope not. They're far too sweet. And they're my friends. Their tails wag when they see me.
