Bovine ponderings for spring

When I was very young, about 4-years-old, I think, I was very afraid of cows. I lived in the city at the time, but we would often go to my grandparents' in the country and, while they didn't have cows, they would often provide pasture for neighbors with the the mammoth creatures. Well, mammoth to a little kid who rarely saw an animal bigger than the neighbors' Irish setter. I actually thought cows were carnivores, and if you weren't careful around them, they would eat you.

My views about cows have changed profoundly over the years. They are charming, generally mellow creatures who give good service by their lactating processes, and provide enough methane, should we choose to harness it, to feed our industrial and vehicular maws, enabling us to say "screw the Middle East, we've got cow farts sufficient to carry us to the next millennium."

Anyway, as the warm days of spring arrived just a little while ago, I thought I would pay my homage to creatures bovine -- about which Canadian poet Al Purdy once wondered if they were lesbian, since they spend so much time in female company -- by the rendering above. I was a cartoonist for many years, and I also paint these days, so I thought, out of respect for cows, I would pay this little tribute.

One of the problems faced by cows is that we profess to respect them on the one hand for all the milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, regular cheese and ice cream they provide, yet we also eat a few gazillion of them every day. These leads one to wonder if cows are getting really pissed by those mixed messages. Some think they are. Perhaps in answer to that question you should check out www.cowswithguns.com. It's worth the trip. Make sure you play the video, if you haven't seen it before. Turn up the volume, because the sentiments (not to mention atrocious puns) will make your day.