The grass is always greener

Miss Minnie enjoyed an adventure this weekend. I can't decide if she's a really smart cow, or a really dumb cow. She wandered out of an open gate (crafty huh?). We've had her for almost a month now, and this is the first time she found the wide open gate. Maybe I should explain.

Our farm is on a hill, the barn is on a taller hill. There are hills and mountains all around. Everywhere we go, we climb a hill. Well this particular open gate is at the top of a particularly steep hill. There is a single file path with switchbacks to get up to the barn. 

Here's Zy on the path, about to cut back on one of the switchbacks. 

Here's another shot of this hill. It's steep to be sure. And after the rain, super slippery. I just never imagined my sweet docile grass muncher would be motivated enough to climb that hill. Sure enough, I went up the barn to milk her in the evening, and I was seeing some pretty serious slip marks on the hill. I thought the kids had been skiing down in their boots. It's fun, you should try it. Once up in the barn I noticed...no Minnie. Where could she be? She's a cow after all, they don't usually just disappear. Then it hit me. Enormous skid marks, missing cow, open gate. She'd made a break for it!

How does one find a missing cow? Thankfully, she weighs 900 pounds, and it's been raining. I was able to follow her tracks around the corner and up the mountain. It got tricky following her on the road, but I am an expert tracker (whose laughing?) and I found her on the other side of the mountain in a beautifully green field.  Munching happily. Completely oblivious of the ordeal she'd been through. After all, the grass really was greener over there. I had just taken a picture of it that day on our way to go fishing in the creek. It is shockingly green, pictures can't do it justice at all. But trust me, beautiful. 

The really amazing part is that she had to climb straight down the other side of the mountain. She had wandered more than a 1/2 mile. Straight down. That mountain had just been logged, and the trail will never be the same after she floundered down it. What I would have given to watch her navigate down. I had to sit and scoot in most places to get down myself. Miss Minnie, great with child, scooting down on her bottom. It makes me giggle inside. 

So to recap....did you get the part about me tracking her through mud, road, forest, and field. I tracked my cow!!! I must have some secret hunting skills never before tested. Not likely to ever be tested again either, but I'm mighty proud of myself. No wayward cow ever fear of being lost again. Rest assured, I will find her. 

Good thing I have those skills too. Because she escaped again the very next day. And Jackie-Tracker Extraordinaire tracked her IN THE DARK!!! Flashlight to the ground finding the footprints, losing them in the brush, finding them again miraculously. Someday, there may be a made for tv movie about the experience. 

And, after learning my lesson (twice) I make sure I close that gate at the top of the hill. Apparently little Miss Minnie is quite the mountain climber.