Viviette Is Not A She...She Is A He!

Well, I find myself in the position of having to correct my post on Viviette, La Vache.  It seems she is a he, and his name is Dude.  Dude also has a brother, Duke and they are not cows BUT longhorn steers (I'm a Midwestern gal and not familiar with steers, only heifers and bulls) So, imagine my surprise when on my walk this morning I see not only Viviette/Dude but Duke as well and their owner repairing the fence they had meandered up to.  To further humiliate myself I referred to them as cows.  He must have thought me "mad" to suggest, even say the word cow.  I mean after all, they had horns...How many cows have horns?  He also told us that Longhorn steers did not originate in Texas but in Spain in the early 1600s, and gave us a bit of history on the subject.

Duke/Marcel

Well, it just won't do to have Longhorn steers named Dude and Duke.  I mean how french does that sound?  So, I have decided to re-name them.  Dude/Beauregard, which means handsome and now that I think about it, the first time we met he strolled right up to the fence and gave me that great BIG smile trying no doubt to impress me.  Duke/Marcel with means "little warrior" but he was by no means little.

The owner has 3 acres that they feed on around his house?  I'm not too sure I would like two french named steers roaming around my house and started to wonder why this elderly man would keep them in the city (well, there are areas that are open).  They come right up to his back door and he says they are "manure machines" and then I started to wonder what he does with all that manure and how horrible that must smell during the hot summer month's and from the looks of it, I'd say clean-up is not on his to do list.

 Viviette/Dude/Beauregard

On the bright side, I don't have to worry about Beauregard and Marcel being sent to the stock yards and ending up on somebody's dinner table.  It seems that the meat on steers is too lean to eat.  He said they usually have to breed them with other kinds of I don't know what depending on what the fad is, fat or lean. HAHA  Anyhow, he plans on keeping these two until they die.  The owner said they can live to be 25 years old.  (WOW, 25 years of manure piled up in your back yard!).

So here's looking at the two of you, Beauregard and Marcel, on my daily walks and maybe, just maybe, I might even bring an apple and let them eat it from my hands. (I said maybe) HA