Brokeback Mountain -- Mooooo!
Ever since the cows have moved into the open space behind our house, I've become a peeping Alix. Either I'm standing by the window watching them (with binoculars held to my eyes to get a closer look) or I'm out on the deck with my SLR and a long lens, taking pictures.
I'm not sure what the cows think of this. Kathy keeps correcting me and says steer, not cows. She comes from Wisconsin and she knows about such things. I'm a suburban-urban girl who just thinks, "Wow, they are BIG. And very black. Moo."
The other day—I kid you not—I spent an hour or so online, looking at every breed of cattle I could find, trying to identify my boys. Sure, they might just be Angus cattle, but some of them look a bit woolly and reddish-black, and the pictures don't show Angus steer that look like that. This leads me to wonder, is this their winter it-will-never-stop-raining-will-it coat? Or are they in fact another breed? To my frustration, there are no ranchers nearby to answer questions for me. It's just me and the cows.
Breed aside, the most fascinating part for me is watching how they interact. Okay, okay, so I'm a city girl, but I didn't know that cows—er, steer!—had such defined social structures. I watch best friends moving around the landscape as pairs, inseparable, and then they break out into some weird form of cow wrestling, nuzzling and jostling each other friskily. Do Frank and Ed just like a good time? Or is this Brokeback Mountain?
At any rate, I'm getting kind of attached to our big, black, handsome fellas, so we've declared that they are one big stud herd, whose only purpose in life is to help to make California cows happy. And you if you think otherwise, don't tell me. Any other story is likely to make me worry for my boys.
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They look like Galloways, or a Galloway cross.
Oh, do they? Cool!
I just dug up my list from when I did my web search -- my original guesses were Galloway, Hybridmaster, or Angus, but I wasn't sold on Angus because of the quality of their coat. That, plus, I don't know what the heck I'm talking about, LOL! Anyway, thanks for posting!
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