Here is an amazing story about one Mother’s love that fooled everyone.
Excerpt from Franceen Neufeld’s wonderful book titled “Suffering Eyes”:
When I first graduated from Cornell’s School of Veterinary Medicine, I went into a busy dairy practice in Cortland County, New York. One of my clients called me with a puzzling mystery: his Brown Swiss cow, having delivered her fifth calf naturally on pasture the night before, brought the new baby to the barn and was put into the milking line, while her calf was once again removed from her. Her udder, though, was completely empty, and remained so for several days. As a new mother, she would normally be producing close to one hundred pounds (12.5 gallons) of milk daily; yet, despite the fact that she was glowing with health, her udder remained empty. She went out to pasture every morning after the first milking, returned for milking in the evening, and again was let out to pasture for the night, but never was her udder swollen with the large quantities of milk that are the hallmark of a recently calved cow.
I was called to check this mystery cow two times during the first week after her delivery and could find no solution to this puzzle. Finally, on the eleventh day post calving, the farmer called me with the solution. He had followed the cow out to her pasture after her morning milking, and discovered the cause: she had delivered twins, and in a bovine “Sophie’s Choice,” she had brought one to the farmer and kept one hidden in the woods at the edge of her pasture, so that every day and every night, she stayed with her baby – the first she had been able to nurture FINALLY – and her calf nursed her dry with gusto. Though I pleaded for the farmer to keep her and her bull calf together, she lost this baby too – off to the hell of the veal crate.
Think for a moment of the complex reasoning this mama exhibited: first, she had memory – memory of her four previous losses, in which bringing her new calf to the barn resulted in her never seeing him/her again. Second, she could formulate and then execute a plan: if bringing a calf to the farmer meant that she would inevitably lose him/her, then she would keep her calf hidden. Third – and I do not know what to make of this myself – instead of hiding both, which would have aroused the farmer’s suspicion, she gave him one and kept one herself. I cannot tell you how she knew to do this. All I know is this: there is a lot more going on behind those beautiful eyes than we humans have ever given them credit for, and as a mother who was able to nurse all four of my babies and did not have to suffer the agonies of losing my beloved offspring, I feel her pain. – On a Mother’s Love, by Holly Cheever
PETA: According to research, cows are generally very intelligent animals who can remember things for a long time. Animal behaviorists have found that cows interact in socially complex ways, developing friendships over time and sometimes holding grudges against other cows who treat them badly.
