Obituary Rind Cosima
125 cows burnt to death in the fire. Cosima survived the inferno.
It goes through your bones when you hear about a burning farmyard where animals are standing in the barn and their lives are extinguished by fire. Some are lucky and survive because they can still run out of the burning barn, but many animals often have no chance of escaping the inferno.
This was also the case in 2014, when a fire of indescribable dimensions broke out on a dairy farm in the middle of the night. 125 cattle burned alive in the free-range barn. Only eight cattle managed to escape from the fire, with one cow found dead with a burnt tongue.
What agony must the animals have endured in this furnace? The catastrophe was also that cattle that had got outside ran back into the burning barn in their panic. We also know this horrific phenomenon from horses that flee from fire and then run back into the burning barn out of panic.
Cosima ran for her life and hid for over three weeks. Wandering around, she suffered from the terrible burns on her back and the fact that she could not be milked. At some point, we learnt that Cosima and the other six surviving cattle had been captured and were being kept in a stable as a stop-gap measure.
But that wasn’t enough: Cosima was also pregnant and was able to find her new home at Gut Aiderbichl Iffeldorf. Five months after the big fire, the brave cow gave birth to a healthy bull named Fridolin. Cosima and her little Fridolin spent a happy and protected life at Gut Aiderbichl, watched over by Cosima’s stable mate Arabella, who watched over Fridolin like an aunt.
Over time, Cosima lost the trauma that had been with her since the stable fire. Her friend Arabella also became calmer and enjoyed spending time with Cosima and little Fridolin on the pastures of Gut Aiderbichl Iffeldorf.
Cosima was a cheerful cow who was always in a good mood. In over ten years at Gut Aiderbichl, there was nothing to upset her. However, when her Fridolin passed away last summer at the age of ten due to severe osteoarthritis in his front legs, Cosima’s behaviour changed and a deep sadness enveloped her. We know that animals can grieve. Just like humans, cows have the ability to feel emotions and can cry for a variety of reasons. Cows are intelligent and, like elephants, monkeys, dogs, donkeys, etc., they let tears flow.
At 17, Cosima was an aged cow. A few weeks ago, however, she signalled that she was preparing to cross the Rainbow Bridge. She was getting weaker and weaker and was surrounded by her trusted animal carers when she quietly said “goodbye dear world”. She quietly closed her eyes and wandered across the large pasture to her son Fridolin, who had passed away a few months before his mother.
(...) "Love is the most sensitive and at the same time the strongest thing there is in life. Living love lasts beyond life; it is the only living thing that can last forever," murmured the young fox as he waved to the eternally small prince, "and parting is part of life." (...)
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Dear Cosima,
We are grateful that we were able to accompany you for so many years and realise that you have overcome your trauma more and more. Fridolin made your happiness perfect. Unfortunately, he passed away a few months before you and maybe that was also a little bit the reason why you made it easier for yourself to close your eyes forever?Arabella mourns the loss of her great friend and yet we get the impression that, like the Little Prince, she is convinced that “goodbyes are part of life”.
Take care, dear Cosima, and send a quiet moo from your star here and there.
