Janie MacMoo The Highland Hiefer

Janie MacMoo The Highland Heifer


Farmer Tom was a dairy farmer. He raised cows for milk, these cows are called heifers. Farmer Tom had a lot of heifers. There were brown cows, black cows, white cows with black spots, all kinds of cows. They all had short stumpy horns and short coarse hair, and they all gave milk. Among them were Sukie, Blossom, Bessie, Talullah, and Bridget.
Every day the heifers would spend the morning in the barn being milked by Farmer Tom and his sons Peter and Jim. Then they spent the rest of the day in the meadow grazing. Every evening they came home to a warm barn to sleep.
Now Farmer Tom liked any thing different and that is why he bought Janie and brought her to his dairy farm. Janie MacMoo was a highland cow. She was different from the other cows. She had long shaggy brown hair that hung in her eyes. Farmer Tom's other cows, couldn't stop staring at her. Then they started to laugh. Poor Janie felt so sad.
Sukie, Blossom Talulla, and Bridget would stand in their stalls and talk about her. They would laugh at her shaggy brown hair.
“It’s so long,"
“It hangs in her eyes."
“I don’t know how she sees with all that hair!"
"She looks like a giant sheep dog!"
“Ha-ha ha-ha-ha!" They would all laugh.
Poor Janie MacMoo, all she wanted was to be friends. She really wanted the other cows to like her.
"If they don't like my long hair I'll just do something about it." She thought.
The next day the other cows were very surprised. Janie had put bows in her long shaggy brown hair, lots and lots of bows. She thought they were pretty and festive. She smiled and pranced and showed off her new bows. At first, Sukie, Blossom, Talullah, and Bridget just stared then they laughed even harder than before.
Poor Janie she was so sad her lovely bows began to droop. She wandered off into the north meadow to munch some clover. She didn't want the other cows to see her.

A few days later Janie tried something else, because she really wanted Sukie, Blossom, Talullah and Bridget to like her. Today Janie had come out of the barn wearing a large flowered hat. She had stuffed as much of her hair on her head into the hat. It didn't hang in her eyes and it was so many beautiful colors and only one bow today, only on her tail. When they saw her they just stared, then they all laughed even harder than before.
Janie shook off her hat. Her long shaggy hair flopped into her eyes, her tail drooped and she wondered off to the north meadow to much some more clover.
Over the next week or so Janie tried different things to make her shaggy brown hair look more becoming. She tried braids. She tried barrettes. She tried curling it. She washed it, combed it and even tried cutting it but that didn't come out right either. No matter what she tried Sukie, Blossom, Talullah and Bridget would only laugh even harder and harder every time. Janie spent more and more time in the far north meadow munching clover.
One day she watched as Sukie, Blossom, Talullah and Bridget slipped out of the fence and into the swampy part of the meadow. With out the fence the other cows were in danger! They could get stuck in the mud and get hurt or worse wild animals could get them.
Janie called out to them," Wait, Stop! It’s dangerous out there!"
The others only laughed at her.
"The grass is better out here."
“No body has even tasted it!"
“It’s green and crunchy and oh so good."
"Go home Janie MacMoo. We don't need you to tell us what to do!"

Just then a wolf came bounding out of the trees. The cows screamed and ran. Blossom stumbled in a muddy patch and fell into a large puddle of mud! The other cows all kept running, slipping back through the fence and galloped off towards the barn. The wolf was hungry and Blossom was stuck! It crept closer and closer. It circled the boggy mud hole thinking. Trying to figure out how he was going to eat the delicious cow and not get stuck.
"Help!" called Blossom, "Sukie. Tallulah! Bridget! Help! Help me!"
But none of them came back. Janie knew what she had to do. Quickly she slipped through the hole in the fence and came to Blossom's rescue. She charged at the wolf her horns lowered.
The wolf was surprised! He had never seen a cow like Janie before he thought she might be a VERY large sheep dog, large enough to hurt a wolf, he yipped and howled in fear before running back into the woods with his tail between his legs.
"Oh thank you Janie!" Said Blossom, "You scared the wolf away. Can you get me out of here?
Janie tried everything she could think of but nothing worked. Blossom was still stuck in the swampy mud.
"I’ll go and get Farmer Tom," Janie said, "He'll get you out."
"Oh Please don't leave me!" sobbed Blossom," I'm scared and the wolf might come back!"
"Ok" said Janie," When we don't come in the evening; maybe Farmer Tom will come looking for us."
So Janie stayed with Blossom. It was a long time before Farmer Tom missed them. Janie talked to Blossom and kept her calm and walked around the boggy patch watching for the wolf. It was a long day so they talked about a lot of different things, as they talked Blossom learned that Janie might look different but really they weren't that different after all. They both loved sweet clover and warm sunny days. They both liked to listen to the robins sing in the spring. Neither of the liked getting wet in the rain or picker bushes. Janie might be a highland cow but she was still a cow. She was also kind, thoughtful and very brave. Blossom knew she had been wrong about Janie. If only she had taken the time to get to know her first, she would have known all the nice things about her. She hoped they could still be friends after this because Blossom realized that she liked Janie a lot.
As the sun began to sink, they heard Farmer Tom and his sons calling for them. Janie called them with a long loud "MOOOOOOO!"
The men followed the sound and found the two cows. With Jim and Peter pushing from behind and Farmer Tom pulling on a rope they got Blossom out of the mud. They led the heifers home tired and dirty but friends at last.
After that day Janie had lots of friends. The other cows admired her bravery. Blossom told them how she had scared off the wolf and how she had stayed with her in the open meadow. Blossom told them too all the nice things about Janie MacMoo. Soon they too wanted to be friends with her. They all finally realized that no matter how different someone is on the outside; we're all special on the inside, and that a heifer is a heifer no matter how much hair she has.