Destiny: International Star

The year: 2005. The place: Sheridan, Wyoming. The event: The International Gathering of Highland Cattle.

Highland cattle breeders from around the world gathered to share camaraderie, attend educational workshops, and visit farms and ranches of local Highland breeders.

It was at this gathering that a gentleman approached Ray, saying "I know you." He had a strong accent, and neither Ray nor I recognized him. "Just a minute," he said. "I'll be right back." Rushing to the elevator, he rode it up to his hotel room, and returned to the lobby, waving a paper in his hand.

"This registration! Look, my cattle have Shat Acres in their genetics! I know you!"

And there it was. In the genetic lineage of his Australian Highland cow was Shat Acres Tiger Lily. Highland cattle bring the best people together. Tiger Lily brought two strangers, enamored of the Grand Old Breed, together. We became fast friends with someone we had not known just five minutes prior. But our shared Highlands' genetics made us almost family!

This Highland breeder from the Australian Highland Cattle Society opened a window into the history of our Shat Acres fold, that we had almost forgotten about. In the late 1980's Carroll Shatney, who purchased his first Highland cow from the Baxter Berry XX Ranch in 1966, was asked to export some of his Shat Acres heifers to Australia. The heifers first had to be quarantined in Canada for six months, then were flown Down Under in an airplane in 1989. What a ride that must have been for little Shat Acres Tiger Lily. Embryos were drawn once she reached Australia, used to help populate the Australian Highland Cattle Society, which had just begun a few years prior. More of Tiger Lily's embryos were shipped to New Zealand to help foster the Highland Cattle Society in New Zealand.

You can read more about Tiger Lily and her "Year Without a Summer" on our website www.shatacres.com under Our Story, Chapter Two.

At the International Gathering, breeders were invited to bring swag from their home farms to share or sell. I brought a few matted prints of our Vermont, USA farm and several greeting cards of our HIghlands, Vermont mountains and vistas. One greeting card had a picture of our home, framed by a beautiful rainbow. The lighting has been just right that evening. I can still remember rushing out of the house, running up onto the hillside to capture that perfect shot.

A Highland breeder thumbed through the box of photo greeting cards I had brought. "I'll take this one," she said, pulling the rainbow framed photo of my house from the container. "My name is Gisela Klosner" she said with an accent. "I breed Highlands in Germany. I focus on color traits in Highland cattle."

This was long before Highland breeders in the US were thinking much about the unique colors Highlands possess and the difference in how this breed's genetic color inheritance is unique, compared to normal color transmission of dominant and recessive genes. I was fascinated and immediately intrigued by Gisela. We became friends in Sheridan, and were lucky enough to spend time together five years later at the next International Highland Gathering in Glasgow, Scotland.

When we parted in Wyoming, Gisela left for Germany with a greeting card from Vermont adorned with a red house below a double rainbow.

Through the years, we have had to be contented to be Facebook friends, enjoying each other's posts of our beloved Highlands across the big pond.

It was Destiny that connected us again.

Gisela wrote to me shortly after I posted the about Shat Acres Destiny's tragic accident, sharing that she was greatly moved by Destiny's injury and recovery. She requested permission to translate the story into German and submit it to the next German Highland Journal. My response was, of course, a resounding "Yes!" Shat Acres was honored to have anyone who appreciated Destiny's courage and perseverance as much as we did, share her inspiring story.

Yesterday was a dreary, cloudy, snowy, windy day in March, Spring reluctant to arrive. When Ray walked down the driveway and opened our John Deere mailbox, inside was an envelope nearly glowing, adorned with many, many rocket ship stamps. On the back was the return address of Gisela Klosner of Augustenhof Scottish Highlands. With so much new happening on the farm every day, I had forgotten about Gisela's Destiny request. Ray and I had no idea what was inside the firm, paper wrapped package.

Carefully removing the outer wrap, there it was! The Journal der Hochlandrinder-Zuchter in Deutschland. The Table of Contents lists "Horn ab" page 111. Although neither Ray nor I can read German, we know exactly what the Journal article says on pgs. 111-117. There, graced with her pictures, is the story of Shat Acres Destiny, and her amazing journey from tragedy to healing. Destiny is now not only a United States heroine, but an International and well-deserved Star!

And the rainbow greeting card? The note that accompanied the beautiful, surprise German Highland Journal is written on that card. A photo card, purchased over twenty years ago in Sheridan, Wyoming, and until now never used. Some things do not last, but the important things do. That red house in the picture is still the house I cherish and reside in. Rainbows still occasionally surprise us hanging in the sky after a storm above our abode. And the friendship and mutual admiration from afar, prevails.

Thank you, Gisela Klosner for loving and admiring the beauty, grace and resilience of Shat Acres Destiny, and all Highland cattle as much as we do.