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Show Covs Prance Heme As Retired Music Teacher Blows Horn FENNVILLE, Mich. A former bandmaster turned farmer brings his cows home with a bugle call. Ami Miller, 72, says he believes his cows have a better ear for music than most people. "I don't know why anyone thinks it is unusual for me to bring my herd home with a bugle call," he added. "In fact, one old milk cow is music-happy. When I blow the bugle for the herd to come home, she gambols along the path in a prance that is right in time to the beat." Miller taught band music in schools in Seattle and Spokane, and at Casco, Mich., during early life. "We have a radio in the barn for animals, and one of the herd had a better appreciation for the classics and band music than the others. She stomps and moos her protests when we switch on a jazz orchestra," orches-tra," he said. He explained that with the shortage short-age of help he was hard pushed, to farm his 80 acres. So he taught the cows to answer to bugle calls so he wouldn't have to walk down to the pasture after them." He first started several years ago. At first the cows didn't respond, re-spond, but then he took the bugle out in the field and blew it close to their ears and led them to the barn with music like the Pied Piper. Finally they caught on and often return home from as far as a mile away when he blows the chow call. "Sometimes I'm almost convinced that it's easier to teach music to cows than it is to people," he said. |