Part 12

The critter that was round with no neck apparently liked me. "Samantha P" was what Mary said her name was. She would come to my pen every day. She went right to my water tub each time and splashed it all around until it made a puddle in the black dirt. Then she would roll. She would roll and scratch for the longest time sometimes laying there in the mud for hours. She would waddle over to my pile of hay and eat with me. I actually was beginning to like the funny looking thing. I never tried to scare her away, I didn't mind her sharing my hay with me. She never seemed to get in a hurry and was quite confident in herself. I respected that.

Mary added a bucket to my pen today. She put soaked alfalfa hay in it and topped it with some sort of brown crumbles. I liked the hay, even though it was mushy and wet. I remembered eating alfalfa out in Colorado at the holding facility. My herd mates and I had alfalfa free choice at all times. It was like a never ending buffet compared to roaming for miles to find forage in my Wyoming days. The taste of the alfalfa was familiar to me, I liked it. The brown crumbles on the other hand, well I hadn't a clue what they were. They smelled strong, a sweet smell, very different from anything I had eaten before. I figured I better air on the side of caution and eat around them. I carefully picked the Alfalfa out and left the brown crumbles in the bucket. Before long my new friend smelled the sweet odor and approached my bucket. She wedged her snout inside and somehow managed to lift her front feet up off the ground in order to reach the crumbles inside. She snorted and grunted as she ate every last morsel.

I relaxed for most of the day with my new friend until late afternoon when I spotted Mary approaching the pen. My eyes grew large as I saw her draw near. Much to my dismay she was carrying with her a long snake. It was huge. She had it coiled up in her hand and it's tail was dragging the ground. I lifted my head erect and held my body ridged as I watched her draw even closer. She entered the pen stopping in the center and snapped her fingers asking for my attention. I focused on her and the snake dead on, facing them but not about to approach. I heard her mumble those rhythmic tones, but it did not relax me. I was much to concerned over the snake to let anything disrupt my focus. I could feel my heart race as I wondered when it would strike.

Mary stood still in the center of the pen and opened her hands. Letting the snake drop to the sand floor. It made a thumping sound as it landed and I sky rocketed up in the air and took of to flee from the obvious danger. The circular rail guided my flee into a curve once again and I found myself unable to escape. Mary quickly snapped her fingers and I spun around to lock eyes on them once again. My heart raced, it felt as if it could jump from my chest as I watched her kneel to pick the snake back up. It was limp as she lifted it and it hung at her side. Again she dropped it to the ground, again I jumped and attempted to flee, but no such luck. I was trapped in this pen with this crazy two legged and a snake that was apparently her accomplice.

Time and again she dropped the snake to the ground and time and again I jumped high and attempted to flee. Each time she snapped her fingers asking me to come back and face her and each time I did. As this went on I began to realize that nothing happened when the snake landed on the ground. It never did try to strike at me, it just landed with a thump and lay still until Mary brought it back to life by picking it up. It was as if Mary controlled the snake and every move it made. She continued to lift it and drop it again, after a while I stopped jetting away. I would feel my body jump in place, but I held my ground. After a while longer the jumps became flinches and then they settled to nothing. I just stood still and watched her pick the snake up and drop in on the ground...over and over and over again. I figured it must be dead or if not Mary certainly had control over it. Any snake I knew would have struck out long before now. I decided to rest my leg as she continued to pick up the snake just to drop it once more.