Chimerae

Her: I need to know about, I'm not sure what it is exactly, but someone told me about this program they're doing out in Wyoming where they're trying to breed beef cows with deer. See there's been a lot of draft (I assume she meant drought-I.B.) there so they don't have enough hay. So if they combine the deer with the beef cattle, they won't need as much hay to produce the same beef.

Me: I'm not really sure about that (as I'm powering on the computer, because she asked this as I was removing my coat while we opened -- my fault though, it was, like, two minutes after nine already.) I'm positive that a cow and a moose can't interbreed (don't look at me like that, think back, you remember the cow and moose couple all over the news several years back. That poor, infertile couple. That's gotta be hard.) I'd imagine cow and deer would be about the same situation, but let me see what I can find.

Her: Yeah, 'cause you see, the mule deer, they're pretty big. And deer don't eat much hay.

Me: (Attempting various search strings, all essentially meaning cow/deer chimera, but saving that for when I inevitably don't find anything.) I would think that to get the same amount of beef, they'd have to get the deer to normal cow size, and then the creatures would need as much hay as a regular cow. (This is my downfall, I'm already aware. I engage in conversations that I know I shouldn't, and am therefore the sounding board for every conspiracy theorist who wanders into the library. I need to learn to type with my mouth closed.)

Her: ...but the mule deer are big.

Me: ...

Her: I'm going to go do some research back here. (Points to either periodicals or computer lab, I wasn't sure which.)

This was one hour ago and I haven't seen her again, so I assume it was the lab.