Why Did the Cow Cross the Road?

Why did the cow cross the road?

I don't know, but it was a very bad idea...for him!

I was going to write another DANCE blog. This one, Dancing at One Wedding, but the cow changed all that.

Sometimes I forget how small Israel is. In one moment, you're in a big city and then drive for five minutes and you're in the country - acres of fields, hot houses, turkey sheds, barns.

Last night we traveled to my friend's son's wedding in Nes Tziona. We drove toward Bet Shemesh and then took a back road to Nes Tziona.

There's never traffic on back roads, they're really country roads, quiet and lovely. Look to the right, look to the left. Beautiful pastoral scenery. Fields of melons. A tractor here and there.

Well, half way down this quiet lovely road, there was a tremendous jam-up. Four ambulances, cars smashed, cars in ditches, people walking up and down the shoulders of the road on their cell phones.

We inched forward.

There was a cow lying on its side blocking the road. It was as big as a whale, or maybe just as big as a Mazda 5. Lying down, it seemed like a mini-hilltop.

Now, I'm from New York, and I remember distinctly the DEER warning signs in upstate New York. If a car hits a deer, boom, totally destruction. They're sweet in the movies, but deadly on the highway.

Now, here was this cow. And there were no BEWARE COW signs anywhere.

Obviously this cow was late coming back from its pasture, and its cowhand hadn't noticed.

Since there's never much traffic on the back road and since they're usually pitch black at night, except for the glow of your headlights, probably a car was cruising along and hit the cow at a pretty high speed.

The cow was downed, and the car was totalled. Then came another car that smashed into the back of this one, and one that swerved out of the way and sailed into the ditch, and another and another.

One white cow crossing the road, and the damage was immense.

I am sorry about the cow, but I hope it caused no fatalities. And to those in the accident, a speedy recovery!!