The Dogcow is a bitmapped image first introduced by Apple Computer. It is the shape of a female dog with nose and spots that look like a cow, originally created in 1983 as part of the Cairofont by Susan Kare as the glyph for 'z'.
The image of the dogcow was used to show the orientation and color of the paper in Macintoshoperating system printer page setup before Mac OS X. Annette Wagner was the human interface designer (Human Interface Human) who made the decision to use the dogcow. The dog from the cairo font was the starting point for the dogcow. Annette edited the dog from the font and created a larger version with better spots that was more suitable to demonstrating the various printer contortions. The name 'dogcow' came into use after the print dialog was released.
When the dogcow was removed in Mac OS X, many people requested that Apple bring it back. That dogcow image had virtually reached cult status. Dogcows do not "mooo" (like a cow) or "woof" (like a dog). They say "Moof!". However when in a very excited state (such as being near a full can of Mountain Dew) they will say "Boo Woo Moof!.
It is an Apple WWDTS (Worldwide Developer Tech Support group) mascot. The original dogcow was named Clarus by Apple employees.
Microsoft used their own variant of the dogcow in their PowerPoint presentation software, with a bell, and a fatter body.
Excerpts from Technote 31
Technote 31 (http://www.macfreek.nl/humour/tn31.html) is legendary for its description of the dogcow.
There is a life-size picture of a dogcow conveniently located in the Finder. Look under "Page Setup..." Now look under "Options." Walla [sic], there is the dogcow in all its raging glory. Like any talented dog, it can do flips. Like any talented cow, it can do precision bitmap alignment.
Somewhere along the line I baptized the dogcow "Clarus." Of course she's a female, as are all cows; males would be referred to as dogbulls, but none exist because there are already bulldogs, and God doesn't like to have naming problems. (from History of the Dogcow, part II)
Facts
In the mid 1990s, when Apple installed an Icon Garden (http://icongarden.jory.org), Clarus the Dogcow was one of icons featured between two of the R&D buildings. There is even a QuickTime VR movie of the Icon Garden (http://icongarden.jory.org/cgi_bin/icongarden.pl?lang=en&curpic=15).
Currently, Apple owns the trademarks "dogcow" and "moof", but surprisingly not "Clarus".
Rumors have it that Apple's developers still use Clarus as a mascot (outside and inside WWDTS), as well as to signify that certain things were still under development.
Technote 31 (http://www.macfreek.nl/humour/tn31.html) was the infamous Apple technote describing Clarus and what she was. In numerous Technotes after that, Apple developers thanked Clarus, used the name in some of the code, used the "moof" sound in applications and inserted little tidbits about who she was. Another major technote describing more about Clarus and the dogcow was Technote 1031 (http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1031.html).
Apple DTS engineer Brian Bechtel created and maintained a webpage at the ADC site (http://developer.apple.com/products/techsupport/dogcow), but the website has not been updated since the ADC site overhaul and cannot be found, although many of the pages from that site regarding the dogcow are available on Jory's Dogcow Shrine (http://www.jory.org/dogcow.html).
According to Technote 31, when mowing tall grass, paper ends up in the grass clippings. Much of this is said to be shredded dogcow, when the dogcow turns itself to newspaper as a last resort.
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