In books cows always have sweet appropriate cow names names... Flossy, Bessie, Elsie...
But, my dad called them #34 or #22 or #51... or whatever number was hanging from the yellow tags in their ears. I think they only got a name if they were a problem, and then they got a Biblical name, not necessarily a compliment... I remember him referring to one cow as Jezebel because she was mean and hateful. I remember another that had pink-eye so bad that Dad called him Blind Bartimaeus... I'm pretty sure that any cow that ended up with a name ended up at the sale barn pretty quickly.
There was one gentle "name" that I do remember. As he'd walk through the cows to feed them or count them, he'd softly call, "Suk.. Suk.. Sukie... Suk.. Suk.. Sukie..." I think it was meant to calm and comfort them.
That kind of makes me want to change this little guy's name to Sukie. :)
(I'm trying to remember, but I think the cow in Little House in the Big Woods was named Sukie. If it's a name good enough for Pa Ingalls, it must be a good cow name. Does anyone remember if that's was it? The cow that Ma thought she was slapping on the winter night when it was actually a bear in the cow pen?)
Thanks to Vaughn Skinner for capturing this
photograph and letting me put it on canvas.
Original Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Wrapped Canvas
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