Cow Therapy

I had the hardest time picking out a name for this heifer, as you may recall. My first instinct was to call her Shadow because the black on her face looked like a shadow of the Grinch. But who would want a gloomy name like that? One day, the black hair was swirled in such a way as to make it look like a cat sitting on her face, so Hubby suggested Miss Kitty. But the next morning, the cat was gone and the shadow had reappeared.

A week or two passed with no name, until I determined to focus on the white shape, not the dark. Then I saw it: light falling as if from one of those sparklers we played with as kids on the Fourth of July. And so she was christened Sparkle, an ever-present reminder to lighten up—on purpose!

Sparkle was shy at first but now is one of the friendliest heffies. She doesn’t like to be touched, but for some odd reason, she likes to come up and give our outstretched hands a slobbery sniff, maybe even a lick. For an even odder reason that I can’t explain, I always feel favored, even honored, when she does so. Who’d ever guess that a wet nuzzle from a black-and-white heifer could be so good for the soul?

There are therapy dogs and horses. Maybe Sparkle would make a good therapy cow.

 



“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor….”   –PSALM 84:11