Inspired by Eugène Boudin (1824 – 1898) – Grazing cows (around 1854 – 1860) – Pastel on white paper – 9,45 x 12,60 inch

The hills are colored in a deep blue green, the trees touch the sky and the meadow fancies a tender green and a dazzling yellow. Where is she ? Phoebe looks around her. She recognizes every member of the herd. All her fellow-sufferers are here, so real, so alive. Yet, when she tries to search her memory, the last ones are totally different.Like every morning, they were fed with a fresh haystack. A real treat during this period of early winter when grass gets tight, a blessing when at dawn the frost ices the paws. While breakfast is in full swing, Phoebe hears the tractor again. It is quiet unusual but she doesn’t really pay attention, entirely devoted to her chewing. Because you have to use your horns if you want to be the first to eat. Indeed, the eldest, hardened to that kind of game for so many years, are the number one in fighting spirit and shrewdness. The gate to the enclosure is wide open, men scream in all directions, scaring the fifty heads busy eating. In a very short time, teams form spontaneously. Phoebe finds herself trapped, unwantedly, with a couple of friends born the same year. She knows it since she remembers playing together for two summers in a row. They have chased each other just for fun many times pretending any danger. Today it’s different.

She can feel it, she can read it in the eyes of the old ones who moo like crazy. Sounds coming from the road: the engine of a big truck, chains thrown on the ground, orders screamed by dehumanized human beings and an opening gate. Phoebe and the others speed straight … into untold danger. Tightly packed together, they can’t fall, but they lean from one side to the other following the curves of the road like the swell. Suddenly, a more intense stop, the back of the gaping truck and the hooves beating the earth. Guided by barbed wire, they have no other choice but to go along. The next minutes go by quickly, very quickly, Phoebe doesn’t really remember, maybe a sharp pain on the right flank, like a taser then the Black Hole and finally … the light.