I was sitting at the computer when movement caught my eye. Golly Pete! There was a black cow grazing around our burn pile. I was alone and knew I had to do something, because cow pats on the lawn are not good. I texted neighbor Dawn, hoping Jeff was home. He grew up on a farm and has no hesitancy in herding cows where they belong. I wrote Dawn that I didn’t know which way to shoo the beast and said this was out of my comfort zone. Just then David came in from work, and I immediately shared the problem with him. I started to go on the deck to take a picture of the cow, but since he was willing to go outside with me, I went.

We made noise, and I flapped my hands at the cow. She ambled along the fence, which I thought was good. I didn’t know how she got in our yard, but cows used to walk in the stream around the fence. I was heading that way, felt for my camera, and knew I couldn’t use it when the cow came back toward us. She was not fully grown, but she looked pretty solid at eye level. We shouted and flapped. She turned and trotted along Dawn and Jeff’s fence. All of a sudden she turned and jumped through the barbed-wire fence! David and I couldn’t believe our eyes. We walked up to see if there were an opening, but there wasn’t. We were going back to our yard when Jeff and Dawn came outside. They examined the fence with us. There were three or four strands of wire firmly anchored to posts, but Jeff pulled two apart. That must have been enough for a desperate cow.

I hope my cowgirl career has come and gone.