"Dad, please! Please! I'll never ask for anything again! I promise. Just let me have one for a week or two. I'll take care of it and do everything for it. Please. Uncle Pete will give me one. I know he will. All you have to do is tell him you don't care."

"Jenn, I can't believe you actually want one. You will be the laughing stock of the town. What would you ever do with it?"

"Dad, please! You have to let me. I love them so much."

Conversations like this went on and on between my dad and me for two years.

Then a family friend came up with the perfect solution to my problem.

"Jenn, you are going about this all wrong. You shouldn't ask your dad to get you one. He lives with you, he would have to live with it. Who do you know who would do anything in the world for you? Your grandpa. So ask him. Maybe he'll get you what you really want so much."

I listened to him and asked my grandpa. And the next week ...

"Uncle Pete, what are you doing here? Sorry, but Mom and Dad aren't home. They went out to eat. To tell you the truth, they should be home by now. Who knows where they could have gone."

"Well, I don't need to talk to your parents. I came to see you."

"Yes, you. Look."

Well, I couldn't even get out the words "thank you" before I was out the door and down across the little dirt road, not even taking the time to put on shoes. One flying leap brought me up on that old brown truck, where I saw it. After two years it was finally here. Two minutes later my parents came home.

"You knew. You didn't tell me. How could you not tell me? How long have you known?"

But there wasn't time to hear their answers. I wanted to spend all the time in the world with my new friend.

I told my parents that she would be taken care of fully by me and that is exactly what happened. I got up to feed her at 6:30 a.m., walked her, sat and talked to her, and even let my dog play with her. It was the weekend of a lifetime. Who would have thought one could have such a good time watching Sunflower, the cow? 1