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  Thursday, July 21, 2005

Belted Galloways!



I have an insatiable curiosity. I'm always wanting to know things. (Like, what would she look like without that dress?) Some questions are of such interest that they become a Quest, something to be pursued vigorously until satisfied. Other questions merely pique my interest, and I keep the file open until the opportunity to solve the riddle presents itself. One question of that nature has been ... <insert drumroll> ... the Mystery of the Oreo Cookie Cows.

Up in beautiful, rural Petaluma there lurks a cow of unusual design. If Dr. Frankenstein had taken to meat instead of monsters, he could have produced a cow such as this, a cow looking like the product of one white cow and one black cow, sliced in thirds, shuffled like cards and sewn back together.

When we first encountered these cows, we dubbed them "Oreo Cookie Cows", not knowing their proper moniker. As you know, words and nomenclature interest me. When we moved to Marin fifteen years ago, I asked our gardener to name all the trees and plants in our yard. I hate saying something like, "That big messy tree with the frilly flowers" when I could just call it a Silk Tree. Somehow, though, I've never found anyone who knew what kind of cows look like cookies.

Then, I got an email today from Carroll McNeill (thanks, Carroll!), who found eMusings by way of Birdie's Beauty Dish blog. You may remember Birdie as the mother of the boy who got suspended for saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the Federation of Planets.

Carroll found the picture above in a photo gallery on my web site, and wondered where'd I'd found Belted Galloways. Belted Galloways! Finally, at last, I know the proper term for this breed.

But I'll still call them Oreo Cookie Cows.


Blog Tag: Chatter

7 Comments:

At 7/22/2005 11:02 AM, Blogger Melissa said...

I always liked your oreo cow picture. I'm using your space skin at the moment and the cows look nice surrounded by the starfield. It almost looks like the cows are floating, contentedly in space.

 
At 7/22/2005 11:35 AM, Blogger Lisa said...

See... if you would have posted this earlier, I bet Gem could have told you that, too. :)

Somehow, calling a cow the name of something that you normally drink its milk with..seems wrong. :)

 
At 7/22/2005 11:40 AM, Blogger dkgoodman said...

Cows in space! ack

"Houston, we have a problem. Over." :click:

"What's the nature of the problem? Over." :click:

"Houston, we have cows. Over." :click:

"Please repeat? Over." :click:

"Cows! We have cows! Requesting trajectory change. Over." :click:

"Roger that. Rerouting around orbiting cows. Over." :click:

Yeah, I can see that. :)

Gem is into cows? I never knew that.

 
At 7/22/2005 3:55 PM, Anonymous Carroll said...

LOL! Very happy to have been of service, Dave. I can see you've got a lively little group over here -- I'll definitely have to drop by more often.

I love that the cows in your picture (which I still think must be related to panda bears somehow!) have what look like marshmallow-topped fence posts around their pasture. Next you'll be telling us that's really a gingerbread barn in the background!

After all, it *is* California ;-)

Enjoy your weekend!

 
At 7/23/2005 3:26 PM, Blogger gemmak said...

Er...can I beg to differ... I am led to believe they are called 'Galloway Belties', small point I know, very similar but they are Scottish after all :o) heh.

 
At 1/15/2006 11:45 AM, Anonymous Mexicanismo said...

come on i've only seen oreo cows in texas. i've seen more oreo cows in texas than in any other state

 
At 1/31/2006 10:48 AM, Blogger lookin4trouble said...

there are belted galloways in montana also buti also call them oreo cows :D

 

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