"M" is for Moo

I was thinking about "M" words and the word "Moo" entered my brain and for some odd reason wouldn't leave it.  I began asking myself  questions like why do cows "Moo" instead of "Meow" or "growl" or "howl"?  I suspected it was probably due to their size and the shape of their mouths.  Horses are about the same size and they don't "Moooooo", but they don't chew their cud either so their mouths are probably different.  You'd think a horse and a cow would sound more alike, though.  So I typed the question in my search engine and found that others asked why cows "moo", too.  I found the explanation below to be somewhat satisfying.


Cows need some form of communication. Their sense of language isn't adapted as ours is, and their tongue is not shaped the way a human's tongue is. The shape of their tongue and throat prevents them from doing much more than make the sound they make. And cows don't actually say "moo". It is just that our own language is limited, and that is the best approximation that people can come up with.  http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_cows_moo

It's amazing what we finally accept for answers as children.  Most adults don't know why a cow "moos" either so when the question is asked I'm sure the response is something like "because that's what they do, honey."  The adults around me spent a lot of time telling me that cows "Moo" when I was young and I'm sure that I heard their sound first hand as I lived in farm country.  It would be fun to hear a Vet speak about why cats "Meow", cows "Moo", horses "Winnie" and bears growl.  Wouldn't he/she make a great guest speaker in the elementary classroom?

My son, as a preschooler, was very fascinated with how things worked and wondered what it was we couldn't see inside things--cows--even a piece of lettuce.  His drawings reflected his curiousity.  His pre-school had a trip to the hospital planned so they could see the newborn babies and what it was like inside a hospital.  He was very excited about the whole thing and hardly touched his breakfast the morning of this outing.   At the hospital he was very hot because of being bundled up.  That mixed with very little breakfast caused him to faint.  It was a big deal to everyone seeing a little 4 year old faint on his tour of the hospital.  He was in good hands.  They immediately took his coat off and gave him some orange juice.

 My four year old son, the intense child that he was, did not forget about it.  I'm not sure how much time passed, but the fainting experience was on his mind for quite some time.  He was sure something was wrong with his heart.  I took him to the Dr. when he drew a picture of himself. He drew what he thought things looked like inside his body.  He had red lines for arteries and blue for veins.  He pointed to the heart he'd drawn and said, "I think the problem is right there."  The Dr. listened to his heart and told him he was fine, but asked if he could keep the picture he'd drawn.  Now this is a kid that really wanted to know important stuff like why do cows  "moo".

Kids think about things...  "Moooooooo..."