Favorite Animal

 WRITING PROMPT NUMBER 25- FAVORITE ANIMAL 

 When I first became a paraeducator at an elementary school and found out I'd have my own space, I decided to decorate it with a cow theme because puns are my favorite and I was "in the Mood for reading". For the first few weeks of teaching, my students would ask me why I had a cow in my classroom and after telling them my catchy slogan I would admit that cows are my favorite animal. 

In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been so open about my love of cows because suddenly every single note I received from those adorable kids was a drawing of a cow. I have quite the collection of cow doodles. Even my colleagues started sending me cow memes and videos. Before I even started teaching my family already knew about my bovine love so since the time my kids were little, every homemade card I've ever received has a cow drawn on it. Or books because I love reading. Or sometimes a cow reading a book. Somehow, that peaceful, field-dwelling animal has become a part of my identity. Even when I had to switch classrooms and changed my decor to a taco theme, the cow notes never stopped coming. I need to be careful or I'm going to end up an old woman surrounded by a giant collection of ceramic cow figurines, just wondering how I got to that point. 

I love animals in general. Give me a zoo or aquarium over a theme park any day. I have dreams of traveling to some of the most popular zoos in America some day. But cows really do have a special place in my heart. 

I don't have too many memories of my grandpa, but I do remember him taking me out into the field behind his home to meet his pet cow, Cinnamon. When this cow was born it had been abandoned and the elements left it blind. If memory serves correctly, he had purchased a few cows to process for meat. But my grandpa nurtured this one and loved it like another child. Whenever we went to the field, Cinnamon would come sauntering over and followed him everywhere. It actually wasn't long after Cinnamon passed away that my grandpa did too. They just had that kind of bond. As a little girl, that was magical to me.  

So... I love cows. They are my absolute favorite. I want to be adored and followed by a cow like that (but I'll have to settle for five kids instead). And I will treasure every last card and scrap of paper with a cow doodle forever.