Minette glanced at Michelle and shook her head when Wolf wasn’t looking. Michelle interpreted that as an “I’ll tell you later” look.

The bull had his own stall in the nicest barn Michelle had ever seen. “Wow,” she commented as they walked down the bricked walkway between the neat wooden stalls. There was plenty of ventilation, but it was comfortably warm in here. A tack room in back provided any equipment or medicines that might be needed by the visiting veterinarian for the livestock in the barn.

There were two cows, hugely pregnant, in two of the stalls and a big rottweiler, black as coal, lying just in front of the tack room door. The animal raised his head at their approach.

“Down, Hellscream,” he instructed. The dog lay back down, wagging its tail.

“Hellscream?” Michelle asked.

He grinned. “I don’t have a social life. Too busy with the bloodstock here. So in my spare time, I play World of Warcraft. The leader of the Horde—the faction that fights the Alliance—is Garrosh Hellscream. I really don’t like him much, so my character joined the rebellion to throw him out. Nevertheless, he is a fierce fighter. So is my girl, there,” he indicated the rottweiler. “Hence, the name.”

“Winnie Kilraven’s husband is a gaming fanatic,” Minette mused.

“Kilraven plays Alliance,” Wolf said in a contemptuous tone. “A Paladin, no less.” He pursed his lips. “I killed him in a battleground, doing player versus player. It was very satisfying.” He grinned.

“I’d love to play, but my husband is addicted to the Western Channel on TV when he’s not in his office being the sheriff,” Minette sighed. “He and the kids watch cartoon movies together, too. I don’t really mind. But gaming sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Trust me, it is.” Wolf stopped in front of a huge, sleek red-coated bull. “Isn’t he a beaut?” he asked the women, and actually sighed. “I’d let him live in the house, but I fear the carpets would never recover.”

The women looked at each other. Then he laughed at their expressions, and they relaxed.

“I read about a woman who kept a chicken inside once,” Michelle said with a bland expression. “I think they had to replace all the carpets, even though she had a chicken diaper.”

“I’d like to see a cow diaper that worked.” Wolf chuckled.

“That’s a product nobody is likely to make,” Michelle said.

“Can we photograph you with the bull?” Michelle asked.

“Why not?”

He went into the stall with the bull and laid his long arm around his neck. “Smile, Red, you’re going to be even more famous,” he told the big animal, and smoothed his fur.

He and the bull turned toward the camera. Michelle took several shots, showing them to Minette as they went along.