Wordy Wednesday

Hmmm… let’s see…. what shall it be for today? Okay, how about ‘waddle dog’? Waddle dog is very similar to the word ‘heavy’. It is just a big, fat pregnant mama cow and the way she walks. Some of the ol’ girls are more dramatic in their gait as they get further along and then there are some that are in a perpetual state of roundness.

Waddle… just like the way a duck walks. Swinging side-to-side. Thankfully, the cows don’t quack. That would be really weird.

Now the word ‘dogey’, ‘dogie’, or ‘doggie’ may have different spellings and pronunciations (short or long ‘o’ sounds) but, overall, it generally means the same thing in cowboy lingo. Dogie is a motherless calf (either by weaning, a bummer or becoming an orphan where the dam died) and the calves got a potbelly or ‘dough gut’ look to them. Or it possibly came into existence by the Spanish word ‘dogal’ which is a short rope that was used to keep a nursing calf away from the cow when she was being milked.

Okay, I know, we’re rulebreakers and not using the word ‘dogey’ in its proper context. But they are being lumped into the motherless (weaned) category and there are some cows that do sit like dogs… the woof-woof kind of dog. Now, our cows (and bulls) will tell you that they are Herefords. They are way to dignified to sit out in the field like your common variety of canine. It is unnatural looking and from what is rumored, in hushed tones amongst themselves, is that it is the Angus in these parts that do that kind of thing. They are kind of quirky in that way. I’ve never seen our cows do that but who knows what happens during the night when no one is looking.

So waddle along little dogey, it’s time to run…
Until next time…

~hobo