The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young

Author:Rosamund Young [Rosamund Young]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571336784
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2017-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

Fat Hat II

All animals are individuals. Some will impress their characters on you, while some will glide through life keeping a low profile. The better you know an animal, the more use you can be to it. If you know how it is likely to react in various circumstances you can be prepared. If you observe how it communicates everyday needs you can interpret unusual situations far more effectively. You can also learn which herd members can be left to their own devices.

The observations we have made quite often have no relevance to the everyday lives of the animals. It is likely that even more interesting and significant things occur when we are not there at all. However, such observations as we have made have given us a heightened awareness of our animals’ intelligence and an ability, sometimes, to anticipate events and therefore save suffering and, on occasions, lives.

Fat Hat II’s usual philosophical, kindly, gentle, intelligent and trusting nature was sorely tested and in fact temporarily changed by the events surrounding and succeeding the birth of her second calf.

Her first calf, the Duke of York, was an uncomplicated chunky boy with few distinguishing features apart from the short legs he had inherited from his mother and the fact that, unlike most bovines, he lapped water like a cat. This odd characteristic had been observed by us only once before when Print, a pedigree Ayrshire, always took ten times longer than any other cow to drink her daily requirement of water, lapping in leisurely fashion.

Print, normal in all other respects, and mother of two bull calves called Victor and Feather, took a strong dislike to the little woollen hat worn persistently by one of the men. She would approach him affectionately, allow herself to be stroked, then, when she saw her opportunity, she would neatly remove the hat with her mouth, dropping it carefully on the straw. However many times it was replaced she would match them with her patient removals. She never tired of the game. He resolutely refused to change his hat; she never removed anyone else’s.

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