It Starts With a Whisper

It was the quiet thought that tucked itself into our hearts one night as we went to bed. Stealing sleep was the fate of a middle-aged Dexter bull. Blind in his left eye, he found himself alone in the pound after a lifetime of servitude.

When morning came around, that whisper had become a plan. Though our numbers have swelled through drought and harsh conditions, Dexter’s plight asked of us another question: “If not you, can you find a way?”

Dexter takes his name both from his breed and the clever robot from the 80s game show “Perfect Match”. A gentle yet majestic fellow, with thick, shaggy curls that swirl across his broad brow. His powerhouse shoulders taper down to his somewhat petite derriere—all hinting at his distant Bison cousins. Though barely four feet tall, he is every bit a colossus and fills the space with his humble presence—doing the same in our hearts.

“We’ve named him well,” we beam.

He is soon to be castrated and his damaged eye reassessed, perhaps even removed. But for now, he rests here with us. A little bewildered by the journey that has brought him, yet he is safe at last and his life will not be cut short by human convenience.

Looking back on his journey, we are struck by how so many domesticated animals like him fall daily from human kindness yet never lose their need for care. And Dexter whispers of something more, something that asks us who we are. For when we look into the eyes of animals like him and see beyond their pounds of flesh, we find highly social beings who long for the many things we do: companionship, safety and life itself.

Did you know that cows and bulls will gently groom their buddies simply as an act of affection? They can live two decades or more, though most are denied even a quarter of this span. They form bonds that endure and they remember the faces of both their bovine and human folk alike, even years after parting. Despite their social nature, bulls are often kept in solitude. And just like us, cows and bulls use their voice and bodies to let the world know: I am content. I am afraid. I am playful. I am alive.

To stand in their presence is to be humbled by them.  They could overpower us with ease, yet they rarely do. And we could shower them with kindness, yet so seldomly choose to. Dexter’s story is a reminder that we are richest not in what we keep, but in the kindness we give.

And sometimes it begins with nothing more than a whisper.