The Bull War

Life on a farm is rarely simple and never dull.  On Thursday the neighbor moved a new herd of cows into the field next to us.  Included in with the herd was a big, black bull.  Actually, it was a bull we had raised and sold to him a couple of years ago, now all grown up and ornery.  Immediately, he started pacing up and down the boundary fence and announcing his presense with loud bellows.  This receive a quick response from our bull who was with his herd two fields over.  All afternoon this posturing and name calling went on.  It wasn't long before a poorly latched gate yielded to our bull and now they were closer.  A few more insults were exchanged with the result being that our bull found another weak place and moved one field closer.  Now they were face to face across the boundary fence. 

In no time they had progressed from insults to head butting.  Bulls being bulls it never occurred to either one of them that they had a whole herd of cows each and didn't have a thing to fight about.  They both had all they could take care of in their own pastures but both wanted what they other had.  Sound familiar?  Then they had to prove to the world which one was the biggest, strongest, baddest bull on the farm.  I guess it's just a guy thing.  I noticed that none of the cows felt the slightest urge to switch pastures, snipe across the fence or start a fight.  In fact, they mostly just went about their own business and left the two bulls to make fools of themselves on their own.

The two bulls spent a happy afternoon pushing and shoving each other through the fence until finally the fence gave it up and they were together.   The ensuing fight included a pond dunking, lots of dirt thrown, major bellowing, and lots of pushing and shoving. Sometime during the fun our young bull ( a teenager) decided it looked too good to pass up and he managed to join in the melee.  About that time the two older bulls, deciding that they weren't having too much success with each other, joined to gang up on the youngster.  It wasn't long before he changed his mind and went back to his own field.

By the time the men arrived they found the war over.  All the participants were tired, dirty and ready to call it a day.  They meekly allowed themselves to be sorted into their respective fields, face saved and battles won (or lost).  All that was left was securing the battlefield.  Inspection showed one gate to be un-bent, one fence to be repaired and restretched, and one section of boundary fence to be replaced.  Like most wars, not much was solved and the clean-up took longer than the battle.