#Apocalypse cow online series#

They tried to eat anything with any hint of moisture, such as grapevines and bags that once contained rice, even. Once-fat cows began to look “like skeletons, and seem unable to move far from the springs and water courses,” according to the Los Angeles Star. Rivers and streams flowed, and all was right again for a spell.īut no further rain fell that season. Thousands of cattle perished, but the subsequent growth of spring grass convinced the Californios to double down on their pastoral way of life. Historic rainfall across California in early 1862 turned the Central Valley into an inland sea and Los Angeles County into a mud pit. Although Californio families in the northern part of the state lost their lands to squatting 49ers and lawsuits in the wake of the Mexican-American War, those in Southern California carried on as if the Yankees never won.

Local society was dependent on the industry - meat and hides for commerce, beef for food, rodeos for leisure. Census counted over 1.2 million cattle in California, with 70,000 in Los Angeles County alone.

It ended like a real-life biblical apocalypse, complete with floods, pestilence, locusts, and the worst drought in modern California history. We’re so far removed from those times that it's almost like the sight of an honest-to-goodness stampede through suburbia tapped into Southern California's collective unconscious and brought back warm memories few of us knew we had.īut there’s a reason why Southern California’s cattle era is rarely remembered, let alone discussed. Long-horned steers roamed from Santa Barbara to what’s now Camp Pendleton, branded with the symbols of men whose last names remain on our streets and cities and schools: Yorba. Once upon a time, about 160 years ago, Southern California was a collection of cattle empires, a holdover from Spanish and Mexican ranches. to explain what cows tell us about a monster that'll be chasing after all of us soon. Note they were raised for public to consume.'Īnd that would have been that, except it turned out two cows were still on the lam.Īnd so here is where the big ol' nerd in me takes a brief detour from the cattle's fate to transport you to mid-19th century L.A. The company butchered the animals, with a Manning Beef executive saying bluntly: 'The animals were harvested. When the escapees were finally rounded up, people called Pico Rivera City Hall and Manning Beef, begging for clemency - to no avail. They knocked down people who tried to corral them before finally congregating on a cul de sac on Friendship Avenue awash in the flashing lights of police cars and helicopter floodlights. Please contact us to arrange a virtual meeting.The swift-hoofed black and brown Angus cattle trampled through residential streets. Publisher: Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing

#Apocalypse cow online series#

With laugh-out-loud humour and oodles of action on every page, and with a fun zombie-comedy story that is unique to the market, this three-book series is perfect for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Last Kids on Earth. Highly illustrated with commercial, animation-style artwork, and written in a fun first-person diary format, the books are very accessible to emerging and reluctant readers. First book in a fast-paced comedy-adventure series set in a town called Buttburgher where all the adults start turning into zombie cows! Jimmy, Daisy and Hooey will have to deal with cola explosions, bullies, runaway trains, really bad farts-and of course lots of drooling zombie cows!-to save the world.