See this innocent seeming creature?

This picture was taken last fall. This little calf is now a full blown COW.

Our cows are hefty and large. I definitely respect animals that can cause ME bodily harm.

Well, that is until …

Here is what happened.

Thursday, I was at home when I heard the doorbell ring. I looked out and I didn’t recognize the guy at the door. He was starting to open my storm door which made me feel uncomfortable. I prayed, “God, please protect us” as I opened the door. “May I help you” I asked and he said, “Your cows are out.”

Oh man! This is NOT something I ever want to hear (especially when my husband isn’t home).

I said calmly, “Oh, some of the baby calves?” (They sometimes cross our cattle guards, but always stay close to the fence.) “No ma’am – these are HEIFERS” he said. (Actually they are brood cows, but that is a different story.)

Oh great!


Meanwhile another stranger had pulled into our drive to alert me.

Did I mention there are 4 lanes of traffic in front of our farm? Oh, and this was RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC … people leaving work.

I grabbed my daughter and we ran across the yard to our barn. There I saw several cars (good citizens) stopped on the shoulder of the road. Basically, they were IN the lane to block cars from hitting our cows.

One big black Angus was next to the fence (and beside of the road) trying to figure out which way to run. Cars were coming and going … freaking her out a bit.

The cars that were parked along the road and the fence-line gave her the perfect path to run down, but a lady who was trying to help was standing right in her path. I kept screaming (over the traffic) for the lady to GET BACK IN HER CAR! Did she listen? Uh, no. This caused the cow to run INTO the traffic. The lady was standing between the cow and her only entrance back to the fence. NOT a wise move. The cow could have plowed her down.

Oh, and somehow in the midst of running across the yard with an almost 5 year old, I called my husband and a friend on Nextel (God bless Nextel — beep beep). It just so happened that we had two guys (THANK YOU MARK & other man) on our farm preparing for our corn maze season … so with their help, my hubby, and the strangers — the cows were directed back through the gate and everyone was safe.

BACK TO THE POINT OF RESPECTING AN ANIMAL THAT IS MUCH BIGGER THAN ME …. well, that flew “out the window” as the old sayin’ goes. Can you picture me standing in front of this beast with my arms stretched out (like playing chicken with a small car headed towards me) yelling, “Yaaaa, yaaaaaaa!” Yeah – that is cow talk for “Get away cow — go that way!”

I am thankful I have been doing the Couch-to-5K plan! I was running those crazy cows and I was in good shape. Ha! Thankfully!

So how did the cows escape you ask?


We allowed a photographer to use our farm the night before and he left a gate open! It took the cows almost 24 hours to discover an escape route. Of course the photographer was mortified when he found out what happened. NOTE: THE GATE NOW HAS A LOCK ON IT!

1. All cows are safe.
2. Nobody was injured.
3. Very nice strangers got involved and endangered their own lives to help.
4. I tried to block a huge cow with my body — ha, as IF!
5. A happy ending.

Always something exciting to share when you live on a farm.

Have a super blessed Sunday everyone!