“Here’s Spit in your Eye”

I am sure you have heard the phrase “spit in your eye” or “here’s spit in your eye”, but have you ever LIVED it, bovine style? Normally that phrase means something derogatory or disrespectful but not in this case!

Tonight, after milking Mocha, I went around to all the stalls to strain the hay out of their water (a long story…) and when I went in to strain Mocha’s water, she swung her head around toward me just as she hawked her throat…and PLOP! In went her spit right into my eye! Imagine the timing and the perfect placement for that to happen!!!

Now I don’t know if you have any idea how slimy bovine saliva is…but let me say I could tell there was a film on my eye that needed windshield wipers to clear it off! Had it been an animal other than one that I am totally in love with, it might have really bothered me….but if you have been following my stories very long at all, you know that Mocha is my favorite cow on the farm…probably my favorite animal, so I immediately dismissed it as just one of those hazards that comes with working with animals and not an overt, disgusting, deliberate act toward me!

I have to say that I have encountered, accepted and even become accustomed to many things that my before-farmer-self would never have dreamed, but this was not one of the events I could have predicted! Manure, yes! Smell/odor, yes! But never would I have guessed getting spit in my eye by my favorite girl!