Removable hooves

No photos, sorry, so just use your imagination.

With autumn upon us, often the cows are still bedded down when I go into the barn in the morning to milk Maggie. Sometimes it takes a bit of persuasion to get Maggie to her feet and "emptied out" (letting her do both her liquid and her solid business) before putting her in the milking stall.

Anyway, that sets the scene. One morning, while Maggie was still lying down on the barn floor, I felt a small rock in my boot. Standing right in front of her, I braced myself against the barn wall, balanced on one foot, took off my boot, and shook out the pebble. Then I put my boot back on.

I glanced down at Maggie when I was finished and saw a comical expression on her face. If a cow can look shocked, Maggie seemed shocked down to her core ... shocked and a little freaked. I could almost hear her thinking, "Oh my gosh, she took off her hoof. She took off her hoof!!" She scrambled to her feet right away and somehow seemed subdued by my magical ability to remove a hoof at will.

Cow logic.