The Neighbor’s New Cows

When i moved onto my property the neighbors had a little herd of hereford cattle. They had a couple calves and were pretty friendly. I enjoyed watching them emerge from the trees around feeding time. I called them forest cattle because the neighbors hand’t cleared the land so that’s where they lived, amongst the trees. One day the forest cattle disappeared. All the fence posts came down. Big machinery arrived to tear down enough of the trees for the crew to work along the fence line. Then they began erecting the weirdest fence i’d ever seen. They used these skinny metal sticks and stretched the thinnest sheets of wire i’d ever seen across them, securing them with thin metal ties. It did not look like a livestock proof fence. I couldn’t understand what they were doing until they finished the whole thing and turned it on. It was an electric fence. Any animals that touched it got shocked. It was very effective too. A few coyotes and some deer got trapped in there with the cattle. I was sure my neighbor would shoot the coyotes soon. With 22 acres, it was hard to make sure all the wildlife was off the property before closing the fence up. The new herd was bigger and they had many young ones with them. They all had horns and different patterns on their hides. They were much more wary of me than the herefords had been and they mooed less often. I missed the herefords, but i was happy for my neighbor who seemed to be moving up in life.