Who Needs a Petting Zoo...

When you've got Poppy and Nana's farm? It was a lot of fun to watch Colter and his cousins interact with some sweet little bottle calves that reside on my parents' farm. Well, it was mostly fun. Trying to dodge manure and keep Colter from stepping in it wasn't all that enjoyable and cleaning the poo out of the grooves of the bottom of my tennis shoes (that are still in the garage even though we visited the calves two weeks ago) won't be fun either.

Awww! This baby should come home with me and live in my backyard. All the neighbors have dogs. Why shouldn't I have a pet, too? Or maybe this one! So CUTE!Colter wouldn't mind either! He loves the baby calves. The calves look a bit hesitant to come home with us though. They must know that they are destined to become...

SAD (but tasty)! Baby calves make me understand why people become vegetarians. I'll never forget a bottle calf I helped raise, Betsy, when I was a teen-ager. Betsy and her brother, Bobby, were twin Holsteins that were practically family pets. We had a relationship with those cows; we played with them, talked to them, loved them, and we ATE BETSY! If I remember right, Betsy couldn't have babies, so her only purpose on a farm was to become dinner.

When Betsy met her fate, my family had been out of home-grown beef for a few months and had been eating store-bought. Store-bought meat is disgusting compared to the farm fresh stuff. Really gross. After being deprived of good meat for awhile, I remember browning the first pound of Betsyburger thinking there was no way I could eat my pet cow. But then the delicious aroma of home grown beef quickly got the best of me, and I gave in; I ate Betsy. It felt akin to cannibalism, but it was delicious. There. It's out in the open. I ate my pet cow, and I liked it. Poor Betsy.

I'm rethinking the whole bringing-one-of-the-baby-calves-home-for-a-pet idea. I'm not ready to explain to Colter why it's okay to play with his food at the farm but not at the table.

Ignore my cuteness. Think cheeseburger.