Cows and Bulls

Growing up in Missouri I had a childhood in which I was exposed to rural America every so often. Just drive 10 minutes out of the St. Louis city limits on any highway and out both sides of the car you will see vast cornfields, beat up barns, and grazing cattle. Sometimes we took weekend trips out of the city to find peace and quiet, but more so to be educated about the undeveloped land that surrounds us. Being in the country in the wilderness, on farms, was not out of the ordinary at all.

So I find it incredibly ironic that I had to travel all the way to the south of Ecuador to learn that some cows have horns. It seemed a bit odd that every time I saw a herd of cattle, none of them seemed to be cows-they all had horns. But I had never seen a cow with horns in Missouri. Cows with horns are bulls. Bulls have horns.

But as I finished up a 4-hour hike I assure you that my tired and delirious eyes did not deceive me. Off to my right was a PASTURE full of cows with horns. There were two hornless babies and both were nursing on whom I thought up to the very moment of utter-sucking were bulls. So unless these baby cows were orally pleasuring their fathers, I now know that some cows just have horns.