Wild Cows

As I mentioned yesterday, my little family is hopelessly city. The youngest ds will NEVER live anywhere close to a barn, as he is very sensitive to smells, and lets anyone within shouting distance know about his dislike of the odiferous nature of the city. Nope, he'll live in the city his whole life.

DS17 said once that it is his entire goal in life to never go outside, given the chance. He hates the outdoors -- but I will say that he does like camping. (See archived posts for his camping adventures -- he brings a unique, masochistic angle to camping.)

But now dd will likely live out her days in the country. All she needs is a cowboy to pay her way, and off she'll go. She loves animals of all kinds, doesn't matter what it is. Loves 'em more than people, most days, and will have a veritable zoo when she's on her own. Actually has the better portion of a zoo, even here.

She knows a lot about animals too. Watches the dog shows pretty regularly and will almost always correctly choose the winner. Had an animal rescue for a while, and adopted out over 100 cats, on her own. She's an animal lover, through and through.

But the one animal moment she'll never live down is her experience with wild cows. She was seven, and I was driving to my sister's house, south of St Louis. I had three kids and a large dog in the car with me. We had just driven out of St Louis, when she looked at me, with that awe that only a small child can have, and announced excitedly "MOM! You are NOT gonna believe what I just saw. I just saw either a wild horse, or a wild cow." Cracked me right up. I'm not sure what was funnier -- that she couldn't tell the difference between a horse and a cow, or the wild element she brought to it. Still cracks me up, to this day.

But then she went on a youth group trip last month, to a farm owned by one of the kid's grandparents. A farm where the neighbors reportedly have a pet lion. Crazy enough, but then, when they got ready to go out to the pasture, the grandparents warned them "don't get too close to the cows out there. They're kind of wild, and they might hurt you." Feral cows. Who'da thunk it? Ya go to the country, and figure it's the neighbor's lion that might eat you but no, it's the wild cows you have to worry about.

But it made dd happy, so we're all happy, cause when the teenage dd is happy, the whole house is happy.