So last night I was writing till 3 am. I thought I had better go to bed. Every day is a big day here. But there was this quiet and insistent mournful moo which I could hear from the open bedroom window. Tired Mind said, “They’ll work it out. They are clever beings.” But another moo at 4 am said, “No, they won’t.”
I got dressed, and took Fenn across the creek in the moonlight. There, I found two little black calves with a new fence separating them from their two mums. Fortunately, they know me as Elf with Food. So together we trundled along the fence to the open gate and the little ones scampered happily off to their mums, and their mums said “Thank you.” I put down an armful of hay – because I am, after all, Elf with Food.
Earlier at 10 pm, I had heard a mournful moo, and an answering moo that sounded like a mum across the fence up the hill. So up I trundled to find a mum across the fence from her young son. But she had friends on the other side of the fence and when they saw me (Elf with Food), they all joined her, eager to receive my bounty.
And suddenly I was surrounded by dancing, head-butting, gleeful (enormous) cow people — in the dark. A text brought my hero Andrew Elf to open the gate, so I could get Mummy Cow through it without any of the others. But there was a problem. Which one was she? The one delightedly head-butting her friends? There was a lot of dancing and head-butting going on. Much joy in the hills.
Not only that, but the son was joined by another calf, and a steer who had come to make sure all was well. Which one was the son. (Black calves in the dark can be hard to distinguish.) I told the cow people that the mum had to now come forward. She can come back another time to see her friends. I walked into the middle of happy, dancing cow people, found Mrs Cow, and urged her through the melee. She went straight through the gate and her son ran over and suckled. Andrew Elf and I sighed with relief. It was the right Mrs Cow!
Andrew Elf walked home down the hill and across the creek to finish up with the chores outside. I had the new problem of a crowd of happy, dancing, frolicking cow people following the Elf with Foofd as she drove, and I had left the other gate open so I could drive straight through. I didn’t want them to find that gate open.
So imagine a little green Rav bumping across the paddock in the dark, completely surrounded by happy, dancing, frolicking cow people, all thinking that 11 pm was a tremendous time for a snack. But if I went in and got them a snack from the nearby hay shed, would they all follow me and demolish the hay? Hmm. Not a good idea.
Finally, I leaned out the window and said, “Not tonight, little Beloveds. But I will be back tomorrow to say hello again when the sun is up in the sky.” I sped across the paddock hoping I wasn’t going to end up in the dam. This time they didn’t follow.
Moral of the story: Always pay attention to quiet, insistent moos. Always communicate with your animal friends. All animals are telepathic. All Life is Precious. Doesn’t matter what time it is.
#sacredsanctuarylife #deeppeaceforallspecies