HUMOR

A Very Short Story About The Mystical Intelligence Of Cows

It scares me a little

Daniel Williams
4 min readApr 2, 2022

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by author

I worked on a farm in high school. It had horses, chickens, cats, an adulterous farmer, and about fourteen cows.

One day, the farmer decided to sell one of our cows.

Here’s how he picked the one who would go. He stood at a distance from the herd and said, “Her,” pointing while their trusting backs were turned.

by author

My boss then told me to drop some hay by the gate, so when the new owners arrived, we’d be able to walk right up to the feeding cows and rope the chosen one.

The moment I started slinging hay, the fourteen cows began moseying across the field for an easy meal.

I felt guilty.

I prayed the people wanted our cow so they could give their daughter a pet.

by author

I prayed their daughter was a nice vegetarian child who wasn’t amassing a collection of leather.

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Daniel Williams

A poverty-stricken, soft Batman by night. Illustrator and writing teacher by day. Previously: McSweeney’s, Slackjaw.