Where in the World

Updated March 14, 2025

“Where in the world is your mumma?” We softly asked of dear Cosmo the day he was found.

Despite the weighted grip of his short and terrifying past, Cosmo had run. He didn’t just keep pace with his fellow escapees—he surged ahead, darting this way and that. Erratic in movement, frantic in spirit. The ghost of the mother he had lost drove him forward.

Capturing him, we mused, would take a miracle.

When we arrived, the others were easy enough to find—terrified but present. But where in the world was Cosmo’s mumma?

He no longer braces at the touch of kindness—now, he leans into it.

The proud, tri-colored buck with magnificent horns and the unmistakable musk of adulthood was no gentle mother. The delicate brown doe, soft-eyed and sorrowful, held no promise of warm milk. So where, in this wide and cruel world, was she?

Perhaps the answer will always elude us. But we do know this: Cosmo and his herd were slaughterhouse-bound rangeland goats, and that offers a devastatingly grim clue. 💔

Had his will alone determined his fate, Cosmo would still be running. He’d be a whisper of white, slipping through the vast and merciless land. And it would take four of us to rein him in. His bloodcurdling, infant-like screams, sharp and unrelenting, would have made any predator other than kind-hearted humans loosen their grip. His little black hooves that kicked and flayed with the thrust of a bison caused our arms to become black and blue.

And throughout it all, we could not have loved him more if we tried.

Now, the fight is fading from his bones, replaced by something softer. He no longer scales his beloved teddy in desperate escape—now, it is for cheeky play. He no longer braces at the touch of kindness—now, he leans into it.

Full-bellied and drowsy, he exhales a soft sigh, a whisper of surrender to a life that, while absent of his mumma, is full of love. His little milk-dribbled lips nibble our chins, his curious eyes meet ours, and though he does not say it, we feel it—acceptance, affection, trust. Perhaps even a love that mirrors our own.

And yet, as he mends, we cannot help but ask:
Where in the world did we humans ever get the idea it was okay to harm his kind?