Sarah's Obsession (eBook)

Little Cow Lives

May 24, 1787, was a warm night. The moon shone so bright that it reminded Farmer Dave of the brilliance of his wife’s smile and the joy of life that glowed from her eyes. Yes, indeed, Farmer Dave understood how lucky he was. He was newly married to the most wonderful woman in the world and appreciated life in a manner few men of the time did. He knew that nothing would ever be too much for them to face together and that his bride’s smile was the most precious thing in the world. Little did he know that fate was planning to bring something almost equally precious into his life later that night.

“Darlin’ mine,” Farmer Dave said. “I think tonight is the night that our milk cow will give birth. Would you like to come with me to watch and make sure nothing goes wrong?”

His bride of a few days agreed, with a smile, and gathered up her coat from the near-by chair. Arm in arm, they contentedly sauntered down to the milk barn. Once inside, they stood quietly watching the straining cow who was clearly nearing the end of her birthing ordeal. They smiled gently at each other as they watched the miracle of birth happen.

Their smiles and happiness faded though when they realized that the very small calf, who Farmer Dave’s wife promptly named “Little Cow”, was not moving well, flopping slightly as she struggled mightily to raise up on her feet.

“Come on, Little Cow”, Farmer Dave whispered softly. “You can do it. I know you can.”

It was as if the newly born calf heard their pleas and finally gained her footing with a heroic lunge. Satisfied with her success, Little Cow struggled over to her mother, hoping for her first taste of mother’s milk. To Farmer Dave’s horror, he realized that Little Cow was too short and would never be able to reach her mother’s udder. Little Cow’s mother, in her own way, must have also known this as she drew away from her new-born calf. When Little Cow attempted to approach her mother, the milk cow turned away, leaving behind a bewildered calf that did not understand why it was being rejected.

Farmer Dave knew that the harsh reality was that Little Cow would not survive more than a few hours at most without outside help. In his heart and mind, Farmer Dave refused her fate, refused to accept that the wonderful innocent creature would not survive.

Without saying anything to his bride, Farmer Dave jumped into the pen, swept Little Cow up in his arms and turned to stride away. Looking down at Little Cow as she burped softly, he saw that she was gently gazing up at him with her warm brown eyes. It was in that moment that Farmer Dave felt love for his Little Cow. A love that his bride never truly understood but came to accept as the years passed.

In her turn, Little Cow followed Farmer Dave everywhere she was allowed. By some miracle, Farmer Dave’s love and care supplied her with enough nourishment. Regardless, Little Cow never grew any larger than she was on the day of her birth. Neither Little Cow nor Farmer Dave cared about her lack of the size normal to most cows. All Farmer Dave saw was his beautiful creature, one marked with black spots on a coat of beige. On her forehead was a small white colored shooting star that began just above her eyes and ended near her neck. Although Little Cow had many more spots, all of the rest of them were black. There were only a few where Farmer Dave imagined they resembled actual shapes. She had one that he remarked several times looked like a heart, and another that looked like a diamond, and one other that resembled a set of intertwined rings. If he found others, he never mentioned them to his growing family.

Every day, Little Cow spent as much time as possible at his side, gazing at him with a warm loving look. Every day, Farmer Dave returned the love he received.

His bride soon became a mother, first once, then again and again. A full family sprang up and Farmer Dave counted his blessings each time a child was born. The couple, now married for ten years, decided that seven children, eight if you asked Farmer Dave as he counted Little Cow as part of the family, was enough. Given the times, four more children were eventually born before Little Cow sighed one last time while gazing softly at Farmer Dave as he gently held her and told her everything would be ok.

Farmer Dave grieved deeply, but silently to himself, trying not to let his family know how he suffered, how much he missed his Little Cow and how much his heart hurt each and every day. They knew as Farmer Dave laughed less often, as he would drop his hand as if to pet Little Cow on the head only to have a look of deep sadness appear on his features. Yes, his family, and especially his wife, knew how much he missed Little Cow.

One night a few months later, his wife of many years by then, who finally reached the end of her patience with her husband’s suffering, prepared a special room in the barn. She stocked it with paints, canvases of various sizes and boards from which he could make picture frames. Finally prepared, the following evening, she reached down, taking Farmer Dave’s hands and pulling him up out of the chair while saying, “My dear, come with me.”

She took Farmer Dave into the room which she had so wisely and lovingly put together. “I know you are very talented as a painter, a true artist in my mind. Would you please paint me a picture of Little Cow? If you will, we can hang it inside by the door or another special spot.”

This was the start of Farmer Dave’s recovery and a renewed ability to laugh and a clear love for life shone brightly once again. It was not long before Farmer Dave became Painter Dave in his few spare moments from taking care of the farm. He sketched, redrew lines, and slowly applied exactly the right shades of paint, until it was almost as if Little Cow lived once again through the paint on the canvas.

Farmer Dave hung the picture in the hallway of his home where he would stop to gaze at it nearly every day. During that first year, he realized that the plain wooden frame was not ornate enough to honor Little Cow’s picture. To pay tribute to Little Cow even more, Farmer Dave took the picture down and took it back to his working studio for more changes. He then started a habit that lasted the rest of his life.

For nearly an entire year, Farmer Dave would first find and then work rough stones to a shining brilliance before selecting the best one to put on the frame surrounding Little Cow’s picture. The first stone he made was in the shape of a shooting star, shining brilliantly white, placed directly in the center at the top of the precious portrait. The second year, Farmer Dave added a heart-shaped red stone to left of center. The third year, he added a blue stone in the shape of a diamond to the right of center. In following years, he added many different colored stones, never repeating any shapes or colors in his tribute reflecting the love contained in the center of a gentle, caring man’s heart. On each stone for the large portrait, Farmer Dave engraved a special extremely small marking of “LC” surrounded by a small heart.

After four long years of dedicated work, the large portrait was finally complete. With a smile of satisfaction, Farmer Dave presented it to his loving wife. In a family event, the portrait of Little Cow was re-hung, above the hearth this time, where it would stay for the rest of their lives. At the celebration itself, Farmer Dave’s wife began to worry about what Farmer Dave would do now that he no longer had the work on Little Cow’s portrait to soothe his soul and counteract his continued sense of loss.

Luckily, Farmer Dave’s wife had no reason for lasting worries in that regard. Having many remaining but unselected stones, Farmer Dave decided, all on his own and without any subtle push from his bride of many years, to make and embellish similar but smaller pictures of Little Cow, one for each of his 11 children. As he felt each child was special in their own unique way, Farmer Dave made sure each picture and frame was different from the others, with the receiving child’s name engraved at the bottom. In this way, he made sure that his children would realize the picture of Little Cow had been uniquely made for each of them and reflected the love held in his heart.

As each picture of Little Cow was different, so were the frames Farmer Dave so meticulously made. Each frame held a different number of stones with the only similarities being the brilliant shooting star centered on the top with the red heart to the left and the blue diamond to the right side. Farmer Dave made sure that each stone and its placement was designed to enhance the love that shone out of Little Cow’s eyes so that, to him anyway, anyone who spent even a moment gazing at his pictures would see the wonderful gift that Little Cow had brought into his life.

For these smaller portraits, only the three stones at the top were large enough for Farmer Dave to engrave “LC” inside a heart on the stone itself. Because the other stones were so much smaller, Farmer Dave was only able to engrave the two letters “LC” on the stones’ backs. Indeed, Farmer Dave went to great lengths to make sure that each stone used to accessorize a picture frame was marked in one of these two ways. This was his way of making sure every stone so carefully placed carried a little bit of his gentle heart...