I had two steers and a dairy cow once – Elvis, Harold and Luna – and I was fond of Elvis, I saw him and portrayed him as a gentle and sweet giant. He was pretty easy-going for a 3,000 lb animal, but mostly what I learned was that steers are not pets, and I learned still more about the way I was projecting my needs and emotions onto animals.  Steers are not meant to live long, few do, their legs go bad and if they are not sent to market, they can die awful deaths writhing on the ground. I did a good job of projecting my notions of steers onto Elvis,  everywhere I go people ask me about him and seem quite shocked that he went to slaughter and ended up feeding teenagers in a homeless shelter for a winter. It was a major lesson for me in the real life of real animals, and I learned not to turn livestock into pets.

I did love Elvis, in my own way, and I learned a lot about myself from him, little of it good but much that was useful. Cows are peaceable creatures, I love to stop along the road and photograph them. Even when they cause trouble – they are always popping through farmer’s fences – they usually don’t go anywhere and are easily led back. Rose and I used to rush out in the night and corral them for $10 a run, and I have the basket full of money that she earned in my study. I was going to buy her a steak but I can’t bear to spend it. There is about $300 in there, I think.

It is tough to photograph cows unless you have a big lens, because they are very curious creatures, they always stand up when they see me and stare at me and usually amble over to me. You have to take the shot quickly. I like these three, they were taking me in.