The hills are alive.....

..... with the sounds of moaning.........

Every morning for the past couple of weeks, we have heard the most heart-wrenching moans coming from one of the properties along the back roads of these hills. There are less than a handful of roads here in our little community, and the property at the very end is huge, seemingly hundreds of acres, filled with all kinds of livestock and wildlife-- cows, horses, elk, deer. They are all contained, and taken care of by that particular property owner. We have walked along that road back there from time to time, and we never know what kind of animal will be grazing in his pastures.

That particular land-owner trucks in countless bales of hay to supplement his own hay which is grown and baled on his acreage. With all those animals, I imagine it's hard to keep them all fed with just the hay from his own fields. Every few months or so, I will see a long trailer coming down from his side of the hills, driving slowly along the road down by our pond, and going out along that road up towards the main highway. When animals are being transported that way, they're not being taken for a Sunday drive to enjoy the scenery. They are either being sold to someone else with different pastures, or they're being taken to market for slaughtering.

Good grief. Just the thought. I could never never have an animal slaughtered once it has been living on this property. I haven't even cooked a store-bought chicken since we've had our own hens, for goodness sakes.

We kept wondering why we were hearing those sad and mournful moans coming from the cows over in those back hills....... we mentioned that the other day to W, our handyman. He said that the moaning sounds are from the adult cows who are looking for their calves. Looking for their calves? Do they get lost on the acreage over there?

Not exactly..... that property owner sells the calves from time to time..... they're taken away from their mothers at a young age so they can get introduced to their new pastures. The mama cows are moaning every morning because they can't find their babies.... so they will spend an hour or more every day just walking in the fields and searching for their young.

Good grief. As if I needed any other excuse not to eat meat....... Who would have thought that cows (who are called dumb animals) would be so positively human?!

As I type, I can hear the moans as they echo from across the hills. The sounds are so filled with pity and longing, I cannot even describe them. The cows sound broken, wounded, bewildered. In my mind's eye, I can see those mama cows walking slowly from one side of the pasture to the other, looking for their calves and calling out to them with those low and heart-felt moans.

When W first told us about the calves being sold and the mother cows looking for them, the first thing that flashed through my mind was a picture of a baby calf on a milk carton, with the caption "Have you seen me?" printed under the photo. I didn't say that out loud to W..... he sounded sad as he was telling us about the sale and relocation of that neighbor's livestock.

And now, after so many mornings of hearing those moans, and now knowing why the mama cows are calling out to babies who are no longer there, I can understand the sadness.