Introducing our very own Princess

The days draw long and sweet, the insects' buzz and birds flit and swoop into the pollen-covered lake. The grass is growing, the sun breaking through tumultuous clouds, I am living in safety. Why then do I sit and have this ache in my chest, a heaviness inside, a feeling that makes me draw my breath deep as I try to exhale this long-lived pain away? I know, but do you?

My guardian sits with me now, understanding and saying nothing, I know she understands as we talk in feelings. Her tears fall, as do mine, as she says sorry to me again for something she did not do. Do you know why we cry? She carries guilt and sorrow that is heavy and I carry heartbreak and longing that still overwhelms me now, as I sit. Humans tend to use long words to dissuade and discourage other humans from understanding our pain, from connecting with us, from seeing us as we are, like anthropomorphise, personification. Laughing and mocking others that try to connect with us. We are people, we have personalities, we have feelings; we may not express them in the same way, but that does not mean we are lacking. Any human that takes the time to sit quietly and think through our lives from our perspective can begin to understand us.

Is my grief less than a human mother's grief at the loss of her child? While you can shout and wail and call the police; do you not think I scream inside? that my wailing is not as passionate, just because you describe it as a moo? MY voice is complex, I have many words, is it my failing that you cannot understand me?

I have lost many children; I remember the sight and smell of every single one. Every life I felt kicking inside me, every small head I was able to nuzzle before they were taken. I still remember my lost children. The horror of being powerless to stop them being taken numbs me. When the farmer puts cows into the field, my heart shatters at the cries of the other mothers who are calling and mourning their stolen children, the memories of my little one's flood back.

You may look and think that I am just a cow, but you do not see me but you do not see me. You do not see the mother I was; you do not understand the pain you have caused. As I sit in my sanctuary now, I would give my life, again and again, to have saved my children, as would you. Do not judge me to be unfeeling, just because you feel nothing for me and do not understand.

So, we sit together, her hand on my neck, two mothers, one with two legs and one with four. Our love is no different, just how we express it, she understands, when will you?