Confounded

On any list of the earth’s most intelligent animals, cattle are conspicuously absent. I doubt that much time and money has been invested in the study of bovine intellectual capacity. Perhaps Americans just don’t want to know how much acumen their lunch formerly possessed before it was a cheeseburger.

Humans position their own species at the top of the list, but since we’re the ones making the list, it’s fair to assume some bias on our part.  We ranchers, for instance, conveniently forget how many times we’ve been conned by our dogs, manipulated by our cats, outwitted by our horses, bested by our goats, and outmaneuvered by our cows. And, despite our supposedly superior IQs, we’re the ones toiling to raise or purchase their provisions, not to mention laboring and investing to keep them clean, safe, happy, and healthy.

If there was a 12-step program called Codependents Anonymous, ranchers like me would overpopulate the meetings….

“My name is Robin, and I’m a codependent. I’m not happy unless my animals are happy—and they know it. My dog has me well-trained, my cat has me wrapped around his little claw, and I’m a slave to my cows.”

Who, I ask you, is smarter than whom?

The morning after the orchard fence was fixed, Izzy and Liza found an alternative route inside.

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and…the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”–1 CORINTHIANS 1:27 (KJ21)