Just taking a quick break from my busy morning of grazing to thank everyone who came out to see me at Kentucky Farm Fest a couple of weekends ago. It’s been a terribly rainy summer here in Kentucky, and Farm Fest weekend was no exception–we actually got rained out of our outdoor pen and had to do a milking demo in The Human’s trailer at one point.
Although I would have preferred he outfit the trailer with giant decals of my face, it is quite roomy and I still had the chance to teach many people about the ease of milking with the Ultimate EZ. I’ve learned that many city and suburban dwellers think that milking a cow is a lot easier than it is. Apparently, in human cartoons, it appears that farmers just sort of tug on the cow’s teat to get the milk flowing, but there’s actually a very specific way to do this. It’s not at all complicated once you get the hang of it, but it does require a decent amount of strength in the fingers, which can be a challenge for folks with arthritis. That’s why The Human and I demonstrate the Ultimate EZ whenever possible–it’s comfortable for me and easier on human hands.
I was especially pleased with our positioning at the festival, as we were located right next to a band. I’ve always been more of a Top-40 girl myself, but I do like fair/festival flavor every now and again. Some cows might have found the loud noise upsetting, but for one thing I’ve been prepped for a variety of stimuli in my training as a youngster, and for another I’ve found that a common love of music is a good way to relate to my biped students. As you can see however, The Human took advantage of a moment when I was distracted to con me into giving one of the young festival attendees a ride around my pen.
Sigh.
I’m not sure why The Donkey (my Personal Assistant who travels to shows with me) didn’t get saddled with this task, but as long as the humans visiting my booth are happy, I’m happy. I guess.
