the gui girl

A very dear church family member passed away late last week, so yesterday I took some time to travel back to my childhood home to be with my family and to pay last respects at her funeral. The Girl traveled with me and Auntie Beth, and Grandma and Grandpa were very pleased to see us all.

Sometimes I really miss the random happenings of farm life. Yesterday was no different.

When we came home from the funeral, I pulled up into the driveway and parked the car. I got out and immediately stepped in a ginormous pile of cow dung.

“Oh My God is that a cow pattie!??”

Mom, unaware of the size of said dropping, dismissed it as “Oh, that’s probably from one of the barn cats.”

I looked her, then looked at the plop on the ground. “I have NEVER seen anything like this fall out of a cat’s butt!”

Mom rounded the corner of my truck, looked down on the ground and said, “Uh, no, that IS a cow pattie.”

“What!? When did we have a cow?!”

“Oh, it’s the neighbors calf, he comes up to visit our house when he gets loose. Apparently, he’s a ‘pet’ ”.

I had never heard of this pet calf before, you’d think that she would have mentioned him in our recent phone conversations.

Later that afternoon, Chica starts barking wildly at nothing, but when I look up I see something pass by the window…

“Mom, I think someone’s here.”

She goes to the door, and says “Nope, that’s the calf. He’s loose again.”

Of course I bolted out the door to chase after this calf, except there was no real chasing involved. He was munching on something in our front landscaping. I clicked my tongue to get his attention, and he sauntered over to me. I grabbed his harness and led him around to the side of the house, out of the landscaping.

He was really friendly calf, and he liked his head scratched. Later, his people come to collect him. They named him Sparkle, and referred to him as their “Cow-Dog”.

Moo