sometimes i get put off from calling myself cowhearted because i feel it just doesn’t convey how entirely much i feel about cows.
folks tend to think hearted just means your favourite animal or an animal you really really like. and it can be that for some. but it can be so much deeper. for me it’s so much deeper.
cows are a part of me. they’re a part of who i am. not my brain or my soul or my body, the way my theriotypes are. but part of my heart. which is why i love the term “hearttype” so, so much.
i want people in my life to see cows or cow-related things and think of me. i want to be associated with cows in everyone’s minds. not because i AM a cow, the way i’m associated with dogs because i’m a dog, but because cows are a part of me. when my friends see cow-print trinkets or cow figurines and the first thing they do is think i would like it, it makes me SO euphoric.
of course, i still am cowhearted. even if sometimes folks make wrong assumptions about what that means. that’ll never stop me from using a term that describes me and my experiences. i think for me they’re also partially a paratype, and i connect with them a lot on the level of being a farm dog. when i think about my life as a farm dog i think about cows. i think i had a herd. i loved them.
“otherhearted” has just as much feeling, just as much meaning, just as much substance as the words “therian” or “kin”. that’s what i want everyone to understand. we are not lesser and our identity is not weaker or less meaningful because it’s “just a connection”. it isn’t “just” anything. my cowhearted identity makes me who i am. there is no “me” without cows.
