Cow

— Narration in "Wayside School Is Falling Down"

## Cows

* Heitz
* Cartoon
* Allen
* McCauley
* Schick

**Cows** are animals seen regularly in the *Wayside School* books and cartoon. In the books, they first appear in "Wayside School Is Falling Down," where they flood the school after being attracted by the sound of Mrs. Jewls's cowbell, and have to be removed by Louis, while in the cartoon, they are treated as a more regular presence around the school.

## Role in series

### Books

In the books, cows first appear in the chapter "Wayside School Is Falling Down," when on a windy day, the wind carries the noise of Mrs. Jewls's cowbell across the countryside, attracting enough cows to fill the entire school. As a result of being flooded by cows, the school closes, with only Louis staying behind to get rid of them, something that proves very difficult, as the farmers won't let them simply be starved, and they are not able to walk down stairs. Eventually, in "Explanation," after 242 days, Louis is able to remove all the cows, aside from a mooing he hears, which he ignores, as he can't find a cow anywhere. The next day, the school re-opens.

The source of the mooing is later revealed to be a cow on the nineteenth story in "Time Out," something that greatly upsets the teacher, Miss Zarves, as she struggles to teach with a cow in her classroom. Miss Zarves almost quits, but is confronted by the men with the attaché case, who encourage her to keep teaching, as the students need her, and promise to get rid of the cow in her class.

### Cartoon

Unlike the books, where cows are treated as an unusual and invasive presence in Wayside School, in the cartoon, cows are a casual fixture of Wayside School, integrated so much into the school building that Miss Mush regularly gets milk from them, and they even have their own bathroom, as is revealed in "Myth of Nick. According to *Wayside: The Movie*, Louis is in charge of taking care of the cows, which includes periodically providing them hay to eat. According to the school rules in "Kidswatter's Opus," cows should be used if substitutes are not available to teach a class when the teacher is absent. If cows are absent as well, then the principal has to teach instead. In a few episodes, cows are still seen flooding the hallways, something that students occasionally experience difficulty with navigating around, and they are prone to stampeding, as is seen in episodes like "The Note."

Cows at Wayside School are seen to be capable of much more than average cows, as they are seen as judges in "Mad Hot" and Todd is able to get them to perform a synchronized dance routine in "Principles of Principals." In "Miss Fortune," when Maurecia is said by Miss Mush to have a future as a milkmaid, they prove to be able to move quickly and even roller skate away from students. However, they are still animals, and are oftentimes defined by their hunger, as is seen most notably in "Music Lessons," where they almost eat the entire school after Myron used the Strumplefloozle irresponsibly.

Mrs. Bellamy is a cow seen in the episode "Class Cow," that wanders into Mrs. Jewls's class, where she is mistaken for a substitute. The students all learn a lot with her as the teacher, even though she wasn't even intended to teach. While technically not a cow, a bull named La Boca Loca is another major cattle character seen in "Todd & Bull Story," as his defeat of Mr. Kidswatter is annually celebrated on "La Boca Loca Day."

## Appearances

See a list of every chapter and episode cows appear in here.

## Trivia

* It is actually true that cows are able to walk up stairs, but not back down them.

## Gallery

See a gallery for Cows here.