Tuesday 30 August 2011

A happy ending for Yvonne..?

From Spiegel*:

German authorities have revoked their permission to shoot Yvonne, the world-famous runaway cow who chose not to be turned into steak. Her pursuers say they will leave her in peace, for the time being, to roam the forest she now calls home. Such a happy ending is rare for Germany's animal celebrities...

The full article is well worth a read, good summary of all the related issues.

* I wasn't sure which definitive article to use. The magazine is called "Der Spiegel" ("Spiegel" is a masculine noun meaning "mirror") but you can't write "From Der Spiegel" because "From" requires the dative form and this would imply that "Spiegel" is a feminine noun. The dative to be used with a masculine noun is "dem" but "From Dem Spiegel" looks wrong, and "From The Spiegel" looks completely wrong. So I decided not to bother.

12 comments:

formertory said...

Wonder if she'll survive the winter?

Mark Wadsworth said...

FT, the theory is that she has 'gone native' and is tagging along with some reindeer. They seem to survive the winter so hopefully Yvonne will be OK. But we'll probably never find out one way or another.

Elsie said...

Because "Der Spiegel" is the full title of the publication and hence should be used in its entirety as the identifier, you could have written:

From "Der Spiegel"

which would have worked. In much the same way that you can't say "I just can't abide the Hoi Polloi".

Still; lucky cow.

A K Haart said...

"tagging along with some reindeer"

So Santa could look pretty silly this year unless he has his glasses on.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Elsie, good idea, but it's too late now.

AKH, stick some horns on a cow and they don't look all that different to a bulky deer.

formertory said...

Unless the reindeer are prepared to do a whip-round and find Yvonne a fur coat to match their own (extremely dense, hollow hair fibres, water-repellent), she can go as native as she likes and still freeze to death...

Don't like to play the pessimist here, but reality's reality!

Mark Wadsworth said...

FT, and I like to play the optimist - the wild cattle of Chillingham manage perfectly well outdoors, unless it's a really cold winter like 1947.

dearieme said...

How's the poor beast coping with having no-one to milk her? Is there an answer in the reindeer story?

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, we don't know whether she was being milked regularly before she did a bunk en route to the slaughterhouse, but no doubt the urge to be milked wears off after a week or two. Or maybe the little reindeer take care of it?

formertory said...

I'm not convinced, but happy to wish the old moo well.

Bayard said...

Mark, it's a damn sight colder in Germany in winter than in the UK and the wild cattle of Chillingham are probably a lot shaggier than Yvonne, but still, I wish her well.
D, she probably doesn't need milking, as I doubt if she was still producing milk when they shipped her off to the slaughterhouse.

Chuckles said...

D, She's probably suffering from a dreadful hang-under then?