Some background on this comic:
Transcript:
A few days after this cartoon was published, I started getting a considerable amount of reaction from people who enjoyed it. But I found it interesting that, without exception, they were enjoying it from a different standpoint from the one I had intended. If you look at the enlargement of the two little calves, you’ll see that one of them is doing the old hoof-behind-the-head trick to its sibling. Apparently, it was just too subtle in the original. (In fact, it sort of looks like the one calf is just wearing a ribbon.) I wish now I had developed this into a series of places the Holsteins had visited. (“The Holsteins visit Three Mile Island” would have been interesting.)
Looks like they updated the comic at some point to make it more clear. Today’s post has a little strip of white that’s not there in the original.
I always thought the hoof was a bow.
I enjoyed the comic as an absurdist satire of American family life.