Shades of the Old West

Wichita was once a cow-town, about 150 years ago.  It's changed a lot since then, and now the focus is more on things that fly than things that moo.  But this morning I got to watch a cattle round-up from my own back yard.

I always let my dog out in the yard in the morning while I'm hustling around getting ready for work.  This morning I noticed that he was barking a lot, and it didn't sound quite like his "Look, a squirrel!" bark.  This sounded a bit more serious, so I went outside to check on him.

The neighbor diagonally behind me has an old shed in the adjoining corner of his yard, and the ratty remains of a privacy fence, with a bunch of untrimmed bushes.  That was the corner where Theo was barking. I wondered if perhaps this time it was a possum, as it has been a few times before. To my great surprise, a couple of cattle were peering through the bushes at us. No wonder Theo was barking his head off--he probably didn't know animals came that big!

Then I saw a couple of police officers in the yard beyond the cattle. My first stunned reaction of "you can't keep THOSE in your yard!" switched to a realization that we live a couple of blocks from the by-pass, so probably a cattle truck overturned, and these were escapees.

The cattle pushed through the incomplete fence into the yard directly behind mine, and were looking into my yard next.  They looked like black Angus.  By now other neighbors were gathering to watch from yards beyond. There were about six police officers, one with a lasso. One officer asked me if that was my dog, and would I take him inside.  Then an officer hopped over the fence into my yard, and was banging on the fence with a stick.

I was glad if they would keep the cattle from getting into my yard.  It's bad enough when a neighbor kid gets into my yard, and tromps through the garden; a couple of cattle would be even more destructive.

The officers were whooping and banging with big sticks, driving the cattle over toward the neighbor's drive. The cattle were not being cooperative, and galloped in circles. I heard metallic clanging sounds, which I assumed were from a cattle truck being closed up, and it was all over.

Update #1: While driving downtown to work, I saw a white PD truck pulling a cattle trailer, which was probably the next chapter in our bovine visitors' little adventure.

Update #2:  Here is the story behind my story.