Patty the Piedmontese

Patty was not your average cow on the farm. Not at all. Patty liked to wear hats.

Patty was the only Piedmontese cow on the farm and this made her special. At least she thought so. Her love of fancy head wear must be because she was a Piedmontese.

Of course, all of the other cows didn't quite see it that way. They found her quite peculiar for several reasons. Her hats just happened to be the most obvious. None of this mattered to Patty though. She loved her hats and she was proud of them.

Patty had eleven hats. One for every day of the week and a few extras just to keep the other cows guessing. Today was Tuesday. On Tuesdays she usually wore her purple fedora, but on this particular Tuesday she was feeling especially smart. She thought that today would be a perfect day to wear her red striped summer cloche instead.

Patty looked at the wall where all of her hats hung. They sat neatly on the old nails that held the barn together. It was an impressive collection she thought to herself. They were all in order. They started with Sunday's hat. Then there was Monday's and Tuesday's and Wednesday's. At the end were Thursday's Friday's and Saturday's hats.

At the very very end, past Saturday, hung her favorite special hats. At the very very very end, and in the most important spot, was the scarlet striped cloche.

It was a hat that she only wore on special occasions, but today seemed to be a special occasion type of day. After all, days were mostly the same on the farm so Patty had to make the special ones happen all on her own.

She casually clopped over to her hats, trying to hide the fact that she was doing something special today. She passed Sunday's hat. None of the other cows noticed. She passed Monday's hat and still no one noticed. Holding her breath she walked right by today's usual fedora. All of the other cows just stood there grinding away at their oats.

"How boring life must be for them," Patty thought. "All the more important my hats are," she decided. She slowly walked all the way down her row of hats. Past Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. Finally she past Saturday's hat and all the way down to her special cloche. She turned again to look at the other cows. All she saw was the slow munching and grinding of today's breakfast.

"Boy won't they be surprised," she thought, as she gently bit the bottom of the hat and flipped it onto her head. Patty thought she must look amazing and beautiful in her special outfit. Unfortunately, there were no mirrors in the barn so she wasn't entirely sure. For that she had to go to the water trough. Which was at the end of her parade route.

Patty's parade route was always the same. She knew she couldn't be too outrageous. The other cows were cows after all. Changing her parade route might be too much for them.

With her courage up, her tail neatly swishing back and forth and her hooves looking particularly shiny, she strolled out in front of the other cows.

Patty knew she wouldn't get much of a reaction. She never did. The other cows just looked up, gave a "harrumph" and then went back to their breakfast. She knew she was doing a good thing though. Even if they didn't like her and even if they thought she was silly, Patty still brought a little variety and entertainment to their day. It was the least she could do.