I don’t know what it is about Highland Cows that have me so smitten.  Is it that big soft nose?  That felty long shaggy hair?  Or the eyes, that despite being hidden behind the forest of fur they still feel like they’re peering into your heart?  I’m not sure, but I do know that somehow the combination of these things left me aching to paint one.  Not a whole herd, just one.  One strong lone cow.  As I painted him I tried to give him a name and thought a few but none quite fit.  To help I imagined we had spent a day together.  We talked about what he liked to do, his favorite place in the forest (a field that blooms buttercups, but don’t tell the ladies that!), and his favorite branch to rub his horns on.  Still no name.  Until the day I met Angus.  A single lone Highland Cattle living on a local farm along with his newly beloved family.  Angus is showing his strength by overcoming his shyness and his family chose him to join theirs.  The name Angus actually means “One” or “Choice” and after I learned that I knew that not only was the real Angus named absolutely perfectly, but I knew I had found the name for my Angus too.