Daddy named his bull after whomever he bought it from. The first one I remember was Charlie, after Uncle Charlie, Aunt Maud’s husband. Charlie was a beautiful bull and did his job well, producing pretty hybrid calves, but he liked to eat. He got so fat that Daddy was afraid he would fall and break a leg, which would be the end of him, so he sold him.
I was in college when Daddy sold him and bought Little Charlie, also from Uncle Charlie. Little Charlie also was efficient with his herd, but he had a couple of quirks. He insisted that Daddy greet him and pet him whenever he came to the stable to be fed. If Daddy pretended to ignore him, Little Charlie would push Daddy with his head and nearly knock him over until he got attention.
The other quirk involved the way he got up and down from lying in the field. Have you ever seen a cow get up? Normally, a cow lies on its chest and stomach with its legs tucked under. When it rises, the back end comes up first, and the front end follows. Little Charlie got up like a dog–front end first. And sometimes he would pause in transit and sit like a dog for a few minutes as well.
Daddy told me about this on the phone. I refused to believe him. “It’s the truth, baby doll,” he said. “You wait, he’ll do it when you come home next time.”
When I came home, I still thought Daddy was joking, but I took my old Instamatic with me out to the field where the cows were lying on their chests, chewing their cud. Daddy called, “Come here, babies. Come here, Little Charlie.”
Little Charlie raised his front, legs straight. He sat for a few moments contemplating Daddy, then finished rising to his feet and walked over to nudge Daddy with his nose. I snapped pictures as fast as the Instamatic would go.
Somewhere in the boxes and boxes of old photos in my basement there’s a picture of a stocky black bull sitting like a dog in a green field.
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