THE COW COLLECTIVE

Now then, maybe it's because I grew up on 'The Estate' that I was completely and utterly blown away to be this up close and personal to a field of beautiful cows ... 

but I reckon it's because they are one of Earth's most peaceful, charming, extra ordinarliy majestic creatures.

It is awe struck moments like these that make me feel so pleased that I became a vegetarian as a teenager, back in the days before Linda Mc Cartney had worked her magic with soya, before Quorn, when being a Veggie instilled fear into the hearts of meat eaters ... when SosMix and nut loaf were our main staple!

On the one hand, it was a very easy decision to be a vegetrian.

My Dad was a butcher.

He would come home with a bloodied white coat and meat in the grooves of his boots. The stench as he walked through the door after being surrounded by such bloodshed, turned my stomache.

On the other hand ... 

being the would-be vegetarian daughter of a Butcher is not such an easy thing. The family were to survive on 'the perks of the job' a household where every year the cooker was too small for the turkey, where Sunday Roasts were on any day of the week and you couldn't find the ice cream in the freezer box for chops!

Mandy pointed out a little calf.

It had only been born 4 hours earlier! It's Mother was very thin indeed and really didn't want anything to do with it.

It was absolutely amazing to watch the other cows nurture the little thing. A Cow Collective all looking out for their friend's baby while she tried to compose herself after the morning traumar.

It made me think ... how many of us rally round and support new mums in this way? Yes, perhaps our own daughters, neices, sisters, but do we knock the door of the woman down the street who might need our support?

We're all so busy with work and our overfilled diaries, and yet these creatures instintively know that it is right to give love to the calf, whether it be yours or not. They don't ummm or arrrr about it, they just do it! Nudging, licking, making sure it is warm.

Mandy encouraged the Mother and the Baby to come together and slowly but sure they did. I wept like a baby watching this most touching of moments: the calf cried out so loudly I could almost feel it's soul ...

Here is a youtube link I have made of the cows.

 

 

Thanks to Melanie Beall for coming round to my house to show me how to embed these youtube clips into my blog. I am so pleased to be able to show you moving image now and will go back to other clips to insert them instead of just the link.

You can have a look at Melanie's wonderful art work at her site http://www.pet-portraitartist.com/