Meet SUNY Cobleskill's Bovine Ambassador C. Abunga
Name: C. Abunga (SUNY Cobleskill's version of Elsie the cow)
Birthday: April 13, 2008
Breed: Holstein
Hometown: Cobleskill, NY
Residence: SUNY Cobleskill Dairy Complex, fifth hutch on the right
In February 2009 SUNY Cobleskill launched C. Abunga's Twitter stream. It was there where she soon became a celebrity of sorts in the local Twitosphere. At the ripe age of 10 months C. Abunga began to sustain her popularity by shaking hooves with Congressman Paul Tonko (D-Amsterdam). As a result of that historic visit C. Abunga was blogged about on All Over Albany and was followed by new Tweeple across the world, from Denmark to Troy. It was then SUNY Cobleskill officially dubbed her "a star."
The calf, born of a test tube romance, lives in SUNY Cobleskill's Dairy Complex, with nearly 200 other bovines. Because she is still too young to live in the big barn, C. Abunga resides in the calf hutches -a gated community for calves. There she hangs with her best friend Maggie Moo and e-mails her Chinese pen pal Mu Cao.
"I love it when the humans visit me," said C. Abunga. "They always pet me and bring me treats. I thank them by chewing on their perfectly pressed clothes. It makes them giggle."
The young Holstein, a sworn vegetarian, loves alfalfa sprouts, maple syrup, veggie lasagna, mesculin, arugula, and cheese, claiming "it's like mother's milk." In addition to being a foodie, C. Abunga occupies her time like most other teenagers. She secretly wishes Joe of the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift would get back together. She plays the Wii (noting she "rocks Wii Play's racing cow game"). She dreams of moving to Hollywood to become a Happy California Cow and put her hoof prints on the Walk of Fame.
"Have you seen those girls?!" exclaimed C. Abunga. "I mean they're like four legged versions of Marilyn Monroe!"
Maggie Moo, C. Abunga's b.f.f., says C. keeps the farm a really great place to live.
"One day she's down the hill mooing with the beef cows, another day she's mooing up the hot new bull," said Maggie. "In fact, just the other day, she even ventured down to the goat barn to see the new kids, and on the way home, checked out the new foals. Word on the street is they're as big as a horse."
While the small cow has big dreams full of glamour and fame, she knows that before any of that can happen she'll have to move into the big barn and follow in the hoofsteps of the famous cows who came before her.
Soon the time will come and C. Abunga will get to move out of the hutches and into the big barn, once she is bred by the bull of her dreams.
"Hopefully Maggie will calve the same time I do, then our calves can grow up together," said an almost glowing C. Abunga.
She realizes the big barn isn't just a cow playground, she'll have to work hard-milking three times a day, giving birth to what she hopes will be the next generation of SUNY Cobleskill stars and contributing to the college's biowaste-to-bioenergy program.
Want to find out what C. Abunga does every day? Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cabunga.
**It should be no surprise that C. Abunga is imaginary and her likes are not representative of the real bovine community.
