Nairobi tried two places

Nairobi does not like choosing. Choosing is how you miss the other field. She likes being in this paddock and also the one over the rise, which is a lot of paddock for one cow, and she treats that as a skill.

This morning she was in the line, and then she was not. She was leading from the middle, which is adventurous, and then she was halfway to the far gate, which is also adventurous, and then she was both, which is not how gates work.

Canberra kept the line anyway. London held her place in it. Tokyo used the hole Nairobi left as a darting opportunity. The herd became a scribble with a hobby.

The bull announced that a cow could be in every field, a tremendous number of fields, the most fields anyone had ever seen. Nairobi flicked an ear. She had been saying that with her feet all week.

Spike ran at the first Nairobi, because that is the one in front of him. He headed her. She was already the other Nairobi. He ran at that one. She had gone back to being the first. A kelpie can do a lot of running. Two places is more than a lot.

He put on the stare. The stare works on one cow in one spot. Nairobi was not offering either.

Suzy did not pick a Nairobi. Suzy sat in the gap between the two fields, which is a strip of dirt that is not a paddock until a kelpie decides it is the only paddock that counts. She sat. She watched. A cow who is trying to be two places still has to pass through one.

Nairobi came through the gap at speed, as if she had invented shortcuts. She found Suzy. Suzy is very hard to be two places around.

The bull said the gap was unnecessary. Historic cows do not use gaps. Nairobi took a step that was only one step, toward the trough, which is how an adventurous cow admits that water is in one place.

Spike escorted that step as if he had invented geography. Beijing pondered the gap, which is a fence you can walk through. Manila watched from the other side, which is a different hobby.

Nairobi drank. Then she looked at the rise, in case the other field had become more interesting. It had not. Suzy was still in the gap, which is how you keep an adventure from becoming two herds.

Spike shook both paddocks out of his ears. Suzy stayed in the gap a moment longer, because that is where the next two-places would be, and it would still be Nairobi.

Some cows pick a field. Some cows try to keep both.