In the early days of the Mac, when Apple created the Laserwriter printer, they needed a graphical icon to use in the page setup dialog to indicate paper orientation. They decided to use an image of a dog (with black and white “cowlike” spots) from the Cairo font. The graphic did not fit exactly into the available space, so it was redrawn to fit. The redrawn animal (in conjunction with the black and white spots) was somewhat ambiguous, and could be interpreted as either a dog or a cow. Soon the term “dogcow” was used to describe the animal. For more information you can visit the Wikipedia article.

What sound does a dogcow make? Moof! Of course!

Link: Wikipedia – Dogcow
Link: Apple Technote 1031