So I'm driving through the streets of Coppell, Texas the other day when I passed by the pasture off Denton Tap Road where the guy has his cows. Cows, you say? In Coppell, Texas? Of course, I say. Black Angus cows. ( for you city folk, those are the BLACK ones. ) That Agriculture exception keeps you from paying those unpleasantly-high Coppell, Texas taxes and for some reason, folks find it more interesting to grow cows than crops on ground that turns into concrete in the summer.

Anyway, as I'm on my way home, I pass by the pasture and notice the herd of cows clustered around the guy's old John Deere tractor. Well, that's just kinda strange, I think to myself. Cows don't usually cluster unless there is a birth, a death, or some food to be had - much less around a machine. But clustered, they were so I just wrote it off to a passing fancy.

A couple of hours later, I again passed by the pasture and there was not a cow to be seen. There also wasn't no right-front wheel on the tractor neither.

Now that just ain't right.

What the world are a bunch of cows going to do with a tractor wheel, I kept thinking to myself. Heck, I don't even know what I would do with a tractor wheel.

Well, the wheel and the cows showed back up the next day so I guess it's just another unsolved mystery. I didn't see news reports involving cows and/or the police; and fire department didn't seem too bent out of shape, so I guess nothing unpleasant happened. Or if it did, the witness' have yet to come forward ( or be found ).

But what really worries me is the simple fact that Black Angus cows aren't usually that crafty. Herefords, on the other hand, are a whole nother story….

Copyright (c) 2005 by Mitch Milam