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Michael: Some animals just love to play, I remember once having holstein heifer. She would come up behind you stick her nose under your arm and gently nudge until you were standing there with your arm around her neck. What she wanted was you to scratch behind her ears, and as long as you did that, no problem. However if you refused or stopped scratching behind her ears she would start gently bunting you and this would progressively get more vicious unless you resumed the scratching. Other more timid animals would choose to scratch their ears on a barn post. Yes, how very much like people they are, some are more sociable than others, some are more independant than others. I remember once being at a local gas station, owner was outlining to a group of us, some of the pitfalls of dealing with the public, how a lot of folks you go out of your way to help, will turn around and stab you in the back. I said, "Yes I would agree, 100 holsteins far more rewarding to deal with than any 100 humans." On Stan's comment about the hogs on pasture. About 10 years ago a local hog farmer had about 20 dry sows on pasture beside a gravel side road, not heavily travelled, in sight of my house. He came everyday to feed and check them with his F-250 pickup V8. I always got a great kick out of sows coming running to the feeding area even when that Ford was still not in sight of the hogs. I could drive past with my 6.2 Chevy diesel and not a hog would lift her head. Same with most other vehicles. One exception, every time a V8 Ford pickup would drive by the sows came running. I even suggested to a friend who had an identical Ford to the farmer's except his was 300 inline 6. He could drive by and sows would never lift a head. It was clearly the sound of that old 351 V8 Ford. Enjoy yourself, animals are a very rewarding experience. I once had a mobile welder guy come to farm, and during a brief wait our dog decided to socialize with him. He commented what a great vocabulary the dog had. I said, " It's little wonder, Marg. talks to him from the time the kids leave for school, until they are back home again, then they take over." The dog also parked himself under the rear end of Farmall 560 one day during lunch time, wouldn't let a new operator get back on the tractor after lunch. I learned later he had good reason not to trust the new operator. And whoever called them dumb animals?
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