Mike continued to chew his cud - he was in heaven, he was sure of it. He'd woken up this morning with the tail he'd always wanted. He could eat grass and feed and chew his cud with his cow buddies, just like he's always wanted to. And his father - and by extension, he hoped, the rest of his family - was not only okay with it, but fully supportive. It wasn't that this was everything he'd ever dreamed of - it was that this was everything he'd ever been too frightened to dream of.
Mike hadn't lied to Jeff and Luke when he said he didn't want to be an animal. Lying requires that the person telling it knows that it's false. Mike was so deeply in the closet about his own desires that he himself didn't fully recognize them. It's not that he hated his human life as such - he loved his family dearly, for instance. He was fond of his friends. But everything else - school, the prospect of work, the responsibilities of human life - those always weighed on him. Even the idea of the business aspect of the farm he looked at with dread - it was an open secret in the family that Mike would prefer one of his siblings inherit the farm, despite him being eldest, and keep him on as an employee.
{But what if,} he thought for the first time in his life, {they could keep me on as stock, instead?}
That idea was so forbidden in his mind, that finally thinking it clearly set a shudder of relief through his whole being. And that is the point when he finally heard the creaking of seams, just before his expanding mass caused his pants to tear to shreds, with his taut shirt clearly not going to be far behind. He looked through his arms and gasped at his increased muscle and fat, and the bits of black and white hair - no, fur! - that had started to appear in spots on his body. But his eyes immediately gravitated to his dick and balls.