Reading the title of this book, “Cowpuppy,” one might wonder what exactly Gregory Berns is writing about. To really understand this endeavor, you must read the fine print. “Cowpuppy: An Unexpected Friendship and a Scientist’s Journey into the Secret World of Cows” If you aren’t interested in animals, this is not a book for you. If you are worried that this is a book espousing veganism, Berns doesn’t do that, either. In fact, he admits to occasionally eating meat, and he feeds meat to his dogs. But he writes about his cattle from not just a scientist’s point of view, but as a behaviorist. His cows, we learn, are not just farm animals or tools, they are his friends.

This makes sense when we realize that the author is a professor of psychology at Emory University. He directs the Center for Neuropolicy and the Facility for Education and Research in Neuroscience. He’s written many other books, including the bestseller “How Dogs Love Us.” So during the COVID pandemic, when he and his wife moved to a farm outside Atlanta, and he decided to get some cows so he wouldn’t have to mow their fields, it makes sense that he decided to interact with the bovines and get to know them better.

From the start, he disabuses us of the notion that cows are just big dogs, although his cattle, in fact, are smaller than the average cow we might imagine. He bought miniature zebus for his farm. They are Brahman cattle with a large hump between their shoulders, and because they originate from Asia, they adapt well to the heat of Alabama. The ad he responded to was for two cows and a bull, and while he didn’t really want a bull, he got all three. Both cows were pregnant.

Over the course of this book, we learn a lot about the history of cattle, their physical characteristics, their behaviors, and their personalities. Bern’s writing style is folksy. The dialogue and the narrative are interspersed with the science; renderings of the brains of different animals, along with details regarding their brains and intelligence, make reading “Cowpuppy” an enjoyable and educational experience.

He often compares cows to dogs, which makes sense because much of his professional life was spent studying dogs. I never thought about the fact that while both dogs and cows are animals that live in groups (packs and herds), “the semantic different is that pack describes a group of predators, whereas herd is a group of prey. Packs and herds behave differently. Prey animals herd together for protection. When under threat, the individual that stands out is at greater risk of being killed.” He goes on to explain why, though dogs and cows are both group animals, the behavior of each individual within that group is very different. This concept was reinforced when I thought back to a trip to Kenya where we saw a wildebeest get killed by a pride of lions (a mama and her adolescent cubs) when he ventured too far from his herd. To cattle, the herd represents safety.

Another fascinating aspect about cows is how their eyesight, their peripheral vision, affects how they interact with the world around them. We see through Bern’s eyes the progression of his relationship with the different cows and the bull, watching him learn hands-on about birthing a calf. And we also observe his epiphany when he learned about Bud Williams, a cowboy who worked with cattle and learned to handle them not by force, but by letting them teach him what they wanted. Bud then used their desires to get them to do what he needed them to do. His mantra was “slow is fast,” meaning that by taking things slowly, the results will happen quicker. That mantra is repeated over the course of the book.

I appreciate the chapter about cows and what their purpose is. He used his cows for grass control, yes, but also for a lot more. They provided cow therapy for him, as well as being his research subjects. When people tour his farm, he explains that the cows were meant to help improve the land, not because he was raising them for meat. He also explains where most of America’s meat comes from: feed lots or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where there might be hundreds of thousands of animals together in a feedlot. Frighteningly, he writes, “Despite the EPA’s regulation of the pollutants these operations release, there is scant data on the number of animals being processed at these facilities, or even the number of CAFOs.” The reason this is important is twofold: animal welfare and the environmental impact from all these animals crowded together.

Bern explains why buying local meat that has been ethically raised and slaughtered is the better route than buying whatever is on sale at your nearest big box supermarket. He suggests supporting your local farms where animals are treated well.

At the end there is a brief history of the cow and a bulleted appendix about what cows are like, how they think, their body language, and more. There is a glossary and there are notes, as well, all demonstrating the facts and science that went into this informative book.

This book is in no way light reading, but neither is it a slog. It’s entertaining, informative, and even humorous at times. We feel as if we’ve been invited into Burns’s life and onto his farm to meet the herd, to stroke their “brisket,” and to watch as he interacts with them. It’s a delightful experience.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.