File:Driving Cattle, Axum, Ethiopia (Detail) (3156437839).jpg

Driving cattle near Axum, Ethiopia. Or are they oxen?

I guess we'd need to see whether the animals ever do any work.

Cattle don't work; they don't have to. Suburban cattle often gather with their friends at the club for a round of golf and a luncheon on weekdays. Others are active in volunteer causes; a few - a very select group - achieve distinction as society hostesses or trophy wives. Despite their enviable lifestyle, cattle are often depressed and complain of feeling "like just another herd animal with a precarious existence." That just proves the old adage that the forage is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Oxen are cattle who have broken through the grass ceiling and entered the workforce.* In Ethiopia, that would most often involve pulling carts or plows.

Unfortunately, oxen are still underrepresented in the professions and executive management, though one dumb ox did manage to get himself elected as the governor of Illinois, while another chewed cud in the Oval Office for eight years under the watchful eye of its herder, an entity whose name on this plane of existence is Dick Cheney.

Getting back to this image, my guess is these are oxen on a break.