Don't Leap with the Sheep by S. Michael Wilcox

Author:S. Michael Wilcox [Wilcox, S. Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gospel Teachings
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2001-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE MEANEST COW IN THE WORLD

When I was young I sometimes had to milk the cows. We had a big, black milk cow we named Meanie . She was the meanest cow in the world. She hated being milked and hated everyone who made the attempt. I think she took it as a personal affront that anyone would take her milk to feed lowly humans instead of obviously superior calves.

She used to charge us whenever we tried to get her into the corral for milking. Often she would hide in the willows and wait for us to walk by, then bolt out and try to pin us to the ground. Milking her was a horrendous affair. Few people could accomplish it. My uncle would rope her, then loop the rope around a fence pole and pull her up next to it. This usually required choking her half to death before she would quit fighting. He then tied her head snug against the fence, wrapped the rope around her body, and tied her tail to the fence. Then he looped the rope around her outside back leg and pulled it off the ground, tying it to the fence so she couldn't kick with it. After this, she grudgingly consented to be milked. Even then, if he didn't tie the ropes good and tight, she would free her hind leg and kick over the milk bucket.

I really hated that cow. She scared me half to death, and I hated going after her in the evenings, for she was especially mean just before sunset. I used to wonder why my uncle put up with her. I would have sold her for sausages long ago. She did have one redeeming feature: she gave sweeter milk, and more of it, than any other cow on the ranch.

One day when she had been especially mean and even my uncle was having difficulty controlling his temper, I asked him, “Why is Meanie so mean?”

“Because she thinks she's a wild range cow,” he answered, “and range cows like to run free.”

“Why don't you let her be a range cow?” I countered. “Why don't you just leave her alone and get another one? There are lots of milk cows.”

“Because she's not a range cow,” he responded. “She's a milk cow, and a darn good one. She just doesn't know it yet. We're trying to teach her.”

I don't recall if any of us ever succeeded in teaching Meanie to behave, but the memory of her and my conversation with my uncle has stayed with me. Occasionally we meet people, especially youth, who seem to fight all efforts to work with them. They kick against the ropes. Sometimes it is tempting just to let them run wild. But the Lord never gives up on them, and I can imagine Him saying to us, “They think they are children of the world, but we know better. They are my children. They just don't know it yet. We're trying to teach them.”

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