This is Major, my brother in law’s pet ox. ‘Pet’ and ‘ox’ aren’t usually combined… people don’t often have 6 ft tall, half ton animals as pets. Welcome to my family. Anyways, a few generations ago oxen were common work animals around here. They pulled wagons and plows, and moved heavy stumps. Daniel’s grandfather had an ox that was trained to take cows to the slaughter house in Benque by itself. They would tie the cow to the ox with a rope, tell the ox to go, and it would amble off down the road without any driver all the way to Benque. When it reached, the workers there would untie the cow and send the ox home. With tractors and trailers, people don’t use oxen much any more.
Major has been trained to pull carts, but since there is never any need for it, he mostly wanders the farm and hangs out with the dairy cows (they get fed corn, so he tags along to steal some). He certainly seems content with life.
* a note because my mom had no idea—oxen are bulls that have been castrated and trained to work. Therefore, you can’t mate two oxen and get baby oxen, mom.
lol... especially the shout out to your mom! And tell Daniel that I love his family... especially his grandfather. Anyone with an ox that travels solo was bound to have been someone I would've enjoyed immensely!
ReplyDeleteEver read the story Ferdinand? It's a kid's book. You should read it to the ox...he could have a 'book world' bosom buddy. :-)