it's a zoo!

my house was recently host to an unexpected visitor. patrick's brother, sean, and sister, emily, came to romp around mozambique and swaziland. although they did come to inhamussua and keep things interesting, they were also expected. the unexpected guest was heifer, our new bovine buddy. and when i say new, i mean brand new. take a look.

for about an hour diogi was barking, growling and, at times, howling. but at what, we didn't know. it wasn't until patrick went outside to take a bath that we heard there was a calf in the backyard. while i thought it was annoying that the dog was barking for a good hour, i had no idea she would bark until well after the cow came home (i just had to include that...i promise no more).

take note of the age. not easy when your viewing through a photo but i'll point out few giveaways. first, umbilical cord nearly hitting the ground. second, placenta, dried at this point. i don't have a third.

he was rather friendly and decided us to come inside and chat, i think largely due to two things - hunger and the fact that he got sight of patricks nipples. cows grow 900 lbs. in their first year. and we choose to drink their milk for life?

i couldn't let him leave without maintaining my alpha-male status. it's a daily occurrence.

an unrelated but puzzling guard dog.

i'm in Austin until the end of next week. then i will return to mozambique in order to insure that i've done something in the past two years. or at least convince myself as much.