DEADLY DEADLY

First I want to thank all of you who left such warm and caring comments on my last post.   They were empathetic, gentle,  so very wise and I embraced them all as they brought a measure of ease to a hurting heart. I felt your hugs. And yes you stirred up even more tears with your sweet words but they were the warm tears of comfort, not the cold tears of loss. Thanks to family and friends, while I still hurt a lot, I am not quite as raw today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are the best.    

To distract and rest my tumbling, painful thoughts that hurt too much to speak aloud, I sought out my favorite distraction, I read. I found a delightful book that I am having a hard time describing. It is definitely not a children's book for there are some harsh and adult themes that are definitely not child appropriate but it helps if you just accept the premise with the faith of a child. It is an good old time western but also a cool animal story. 

Deadly Deadly by M.J. Vigna is the story about a Texas  longhorn bull with an amazing personality.  When his Momma dies, a cowboy gets caught up raising the little orphan. The calf and cowboy form a close bond. Deadly  becomes the cowboy's partner and friend. They work together as a team on trail drives and are inseparable  The cowboy names him Deadly Deadly due to the mammoth spread and potential danger of his seven foot, tip to tip horns. 

The cowboy develops into a sought after cattle drive trail boss who is contracted to drive a small herd of Herefords, meant for breeding stock, from California to Texas. This is the story about the long and dangerous trail drive.   Deadly, is an invaluable aid during the drive. While the writer sometimes takes you into the mind of Deadly, it is not so much a personification of the bull the author seeks. Deadly tends to mostly think like a bull, an unusual bull, but still a bull, not a person. I liked that. 

Deadly and the cowboy's friendship and dependence on one another makes for a delightful story. It might test ones belief that such a bond could happen.  However, I personally know a strong relationship can develop with a bovine.

I use to raise day old calves and I became really attached to one that purely thought I was her Momma. Reba was an adorable red Limousin who followed me everywhere and ran to the fence bawling every time she saw me. I eventually sold her for breeding stock and the parting was a tearjerker for us both. 

A special bond between cow and human is very possible. When I would go to visit Reba at her new home, the reunions were amazing and a bit heart wrenching. She did not forget. I still think of her today.The post I did about Fred  shows that even a Brahma bull can become attached to a human with a little effort. 

Outside of a cool story, one of the interesting things about this book is its author. This is M.J. Vigna's debut novel and she is in her mid-eighties. She knows animals, especially herd animals. Besides being a writer, she is also an accomplished artist, mother of 5, and survivalist camper. Really makes me feel like an underachieving slacker. I need to get cracking these next ten years. 

I hope if this type of book interests, you will give it a look. I really enjoyed it. It was a necessary and sanity saving diversion. It helped with the healing by letting me at least for a while, forget that my heart was hurting as I got lost in the story. Thank you M.J. Vigna.

I want to thank all of you again, again and again for your kindness and caring during my loss. Your words meant everything to me.