The nice cow I met on DAY FIVE.

Day FIVE.

How many times are you dying to tell your spouse a story, but with too many kids around you are left to desperate eye movements and one word paragraphs. I can't spell, the kids are too old for that. They know more spanish than Eric and more Chinese than both of us. Maybe pig latin would work...

For some reason, on the afternoon of day five, I decided the roads of La Llave were calling my name. So I lace up my running shoes and head out the door. Ahhhh...warmth, birds singing, muddy steep roadways. I decide to head farther into the hills and leave the boundaries of the wire fence and cattle gate. I'm totally engaged in the moment when suddenly I noticed a nice brown cow staring at me. She looked as though she was expecting me, eyes locked on my every movement while still chewing the grassy weeds she must have bit off minutes ago. I continued toward her expecting her to move out of my way. I'm human, she's cow, I'm smaller...but smarter....”move it cow”, I think. She didn't move. I wasn't going to let one little, OK big, cow scare me back home, so I continued on. I even got brave enough to walk right by. "Hmm, that was nice--cows, cow pasture, nice and pastoral." A short walk later, my road ended, and I decided I should turn around to head back. Then I noticed her again, the same cow that is, and she had decided to move after all-right into the middle of my path. And, not only that but somehow, she had silently summoned her own cow gang to surround me. I was stuck. I couldn't just wait for them to trample me. I couldn't go around, or above or underneath them--I had to cross their path. I clapped and yelled and tried to look big but they just stared and I'm guessing did a little cow laughing. So, I got braver and moved ahead. I walked slowly while keeping my eyes locked on the old bessie, hoping the others would stay just where they were. When we came side by side, I thought the worst was over. It had to be! My short breath, and nervous movements must have given me away because the cow, I once that was nice, actually took a step closer to me. And, then I couldn't help it, some irrational fear, or human reaction occurred within me and I took off running. Running down the steep, rocky, rutted road of La Llave. And, when I ran, the cow ran. I'm not sure how close she actually was, I wasn't looking back, but I could hear her just above the thumping of my heart. Seriously, that beastly animal could run fast!! When I finally made it to our casa cow grate, I turned around and yelled one last time at the cow before heading in. Inside, I took one look at Eric and said "the cows are out." He looked a bit puzzled and amused at the same time. The girls were already scared of the loud mooing, no way could I share this story. So I stuck my head in the fridge, opened a Corona, stuffed a large chunk of lime inside and then whispered just so the kids couldn't hear. A cow challenged me. A cow chased me. The cow almost won.