Cowgirl Megan

Well, since my return, I've become the official cow handler at the park. Luckily, the brown cow seems a little more accepting of people now, and doesn't start bucking anytime someone approaches her. Essentially my job entails letting Veggie & Terrian (I was hoping someone would have given them better names while I was gone...) out in the morning, mucking out their stalls and putting them away in the evening.

Occaisionally I'm faced with greater challenges, such as when Terrian (the brown cow) breaks free of her rope. Veggie roams free & is generally fairly docile, but for some reason when Terrian is off her rope, the two go crazy. Last week, one of the volunteers casually mentionned to me that she had seen our two cows racing down the road, about a kilometer away. Grabbed a bunch of bananas (elephants aren't the only ones who love them!), and set off in persuit. Finally found them about 2 or 3 kilometers away. They had joined a huge herd of cattle that are taken down to a field near the river to graze every day. Luckily my cows weren't too difficult to pick out - they looked like two poodles amidst a pack of mutts.

Carefully tiptoed through the herd (most cows here have big horns). Veggie finally noticed me (she generally comes when I call her), and looked at me like "Oh! You've come to join us?" Being the younger sister, she'll follow Terrian, so I started feeding Terrian my bunch of bananas, while leading her back to the road. One problem. It seemed that in the half hour they had been mingling with the herd, Terrian had gained the admiration of one of the water buffalos. I don't know if it was her shiny coat, or the fact that she actually had some meat on her bones, but he was determined to follow her. So there I am, running towards the road with a galloping Terrian behind me (trying to catch the bananas), a water buffalo following dutifully behind her, and Veggie bringing up the rear, wondering what all the fuss is about. Luckily for me (and Terrian), by the time we got to the road, one of the mahouts had shown up on his motorbike and was able to scare the buffalo away long enough for us to make our escape...