Dotted Calf

 Written by: Asma Kakar

Once upon a time, there was a dotted calf living with her mother in a stable in a remote village.

One day, the calf woke up early in the morning and she asked her mother to give her food. Her mother gave her a piece of dried bread but the calf said that she is very hungry. Meanwhile the owner of the stable brought them dried hay and the calf starting eating. Her mother asked her not to eat too much because their owner would take them to the pasture but the calf ate all the hey. Her mother prevented her from eating more hey.

Sometime later, their owner took them to the pasture.

The calf was eating grass. Her mother asked her not to eat too much grass because she might become ill. These words made the calf angry and she left her mother alone and decided to find another mother for herself.

She saw a bitch with her pups along the way. The asked the bitch if she accept as her daughter. The bitch denied. Then the calf met a queen and she did not accept her request either.

The day was going to its end and the sky was getting dark. She visited a hedgehog and asked to accept her as her baby. The hedgehog accepted.

They went to a hey store and started eating hey. The calf was very happy for having a new mother that she was not preventing her from eating.

The hedgehog went to sleep and she asked the calf to sleep too but the calf asked her to sing her a cradlesong but the hedgehog refused. A few minutes later, the calf awoke the hedgehog and said that she was suffering from stomachache but the hedgehog got angry and told that not to awake her anymore. The calf felt more stomachache and left the hedgehog house. She saw that the bitch was sleeping with her pups. She remembered her mother, cow that she was so kind that preventing her from eating too much hey. meanwhile, she heard the crying of her mother that was searching the calf. The calf went near to her mother and asked her excuse and said that anger of the mother better than the love of others.