It’s taken me a couple of months to put down this Christmas story on paper. Why? It’s partially to do with the banal cruelty of the story and how it surprised me that due to my lack of experience in writing, I didn’t know how convey the emotions and reflections in a concise blog post.
On the first day over Christmas holiday, while staying at my partner’s parents place out in the middle of no where in Victoria, Virginia, whose house faces a cattle farm, the same cattle farm that holds Princess the white donkey mentioned in my last post. That afternoon, the family dog, Pepper, perked up as she usually does in the afternoon, signalling to us that she wants to go out and play fetch. The family encouraged me to go with the dog as she stood facing the door. I picked up her ball and headed over to an excited Pepper. I open the door and in a flash, I hear a shotgun being fired and see a herd of cows stampeding along the fence between our side and the farm.
I immediately shut the door and Pepper, looking fearful, cowered behind me. It would appear that only I and the dog were startled, being told that everyone here has guns and that is just normal day to day life in these parts. Still unable to get to grips with the mere seconds of imagery I received upon opening the door. I decided to go outside anyway. I open the door and straight up from me across the fence….a dead calf.
The farmers turned up with a forklift and told us that the someone had come by the farm and picked that calf to serve up for Christmas dinner. The dead calf was tied up by one leg on the forklift and then lifted up into the air and driven away, dangling.
Incidentally, I had only just learned about two films centred around domesticated cows which are excellent and I’ve linked to trailers below.
The I couldn’t help but reach out and make friends with Princess the white donkey and cannot imagine what it must be like for her and the rest of the animals on that beautiful landscape with nothing but terrible things upon it.
The Uncertain 
Leave a comment