Mad Cow

Today was looking fairly uneventful. Got up, sun shining. Took a shower, got dressed and walked the mile into the village, grabbed the bus to hell, AKA as Fraserburgh, Scotland, got off the bus, went and ran errands, got back on the bus, got off the bus proceeded to walk home. I packed the camera with only one lens, my 40mm macro (micro in Nikonese), just in case something might be interesting. A bit of a gamble carrying an expensive camera in the junkie capitol of NE Scotland, but hey, who knew I was carrying it?

Walking home I wasn't feeling well. Then, I was thinking I'd be lucky to get home without being sick on the way. I took my time, I slowed down, I bought some cold water. About half way home, I was passing the farmer's fields when I saw a pretty, obviously young, cow. She had a shiny coat and was interested in me. I took a risk, I debased myself by baby talking to her until she got up, stretched out, and came over to the fence to see what I was and what I wanted with her. I took a few pics of her, pretty girl. 

Just as I was counting my blessings that this young cow gave me the time of day a large, clearly very adult female came sauntering over shakin' her weight around for all she was worth. "Who are you, bitch?" seemed to come from her eyes. I took a step back and let her approach, she was interested in the tall, white flowers that grow near the fence. When she'd eaten all she could reach, I got more and handed them over, submissive like and hoping she didn't shout "STAMPEDE HER!" to the others. I was surprised when she didn't attack me, no, suddenly every other cow in the field walked up to stand at the fence, and beg for some flowers. 

I stood there for ages (more like 30 minutes) handing flowers to grateful heifers. I took photo after photo until it started raining. I said good bye and was on my way. When I looked behind me, there were about 15 cows trying to follow me, at least as far as their side fence would allow. When I turned around, all I heard was "Mmmmooooo!". 

It made ME smile. I also won't be eating red meat too soon. I remembered why I stopped eating meat all those years ago, these gentle giants put their faith in us to shelter and feed them, to care for them. How do we return the favor of their trust?  

This isn't a moral soapbox and I'm sure I'll fail in yet another attempt to follow my heart and give up eating red meat, I know I know...chicken is meat too, but you get the point. I know better, but I am, as ever, failingly human. 

And thus here I am, one of my favorite philosophers, one of my favorite quotes:

“Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.” 

- Arthur Schopenhauer