Con Artist....

Every morning and afternoon, I head out to the barn to do the milking. I take a stainless steel milk pail with me, that is pretty easy for the bovine to spot from a good distance away. They also hear the filter/strainer that I have on the top, clanging around to announce my trek to the barn.

Cows can HEAR supper time.....

They have learned and adapted enough to associate the sight and sounds of that bucket with food. All I need do is open the back door, and rattle that bucket, and those greedy cows start heading for the barn door and the milking stand - or, rather - the feed pan.

Of course, at least ONE of the cows has other ways of detecting me. On several occasions, I've noticed that Daisy will be watching for me to come out the back door. This usually happens when I'm a little bit late, and she's hungry. The thing is, though, she's never SURE its time to be fed until she sees or hears that bucket. Then she KNOWS it's time for food.

Envision Snoopy and his "happy dance" at suppertime....

Awhile back, I made the mistake of giving Peaches a little milk fresh from the cow. I really didn't have much choice, though, the jar was full and I still had about a 1/2 cup left over. I figured she'd enjoy it.

Yup, she did.

Now, the little con artist sees me come in the door with that pail, does a little "happy dance" of her own, and zips to the kitchen in hopes of getting some.

The first thing she does, is stand up on her hind feet, tap my leg with her fingers, and look up at me with that" PLEASE - give me some, or I'll DIE", look. The sad "cry" whining she does is just for added "effect"....

Then she stands up and begs for it:



I'm a sucker for a pretty face - especially one who has that sad, puppy dog look in her eyes...

So, yeah, I cave.

She sees me get the yellow dish out of the cabinet, and goes into a different "happy dance" - now one of expectation, instead of just hoping. I swear, her tongue is working before the dish even hits the floor.



Autumn, during this whole affair, just sits idly by, letting Peaches do all the work. She's MORE than happy to share in the "spoils", though - and Peaches lets her.



Peaches's evil plan doesn't work all of the time but, like I said, I'm a sucker.

She's so all fired up about that pail, maybe I should try teaching her to go get the milk herself, and bring it to ME.