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When her mom told her, “She who dies with the most cows wins,” Denise Tubangui of San Jacinto took it to heart.Guinness World Records named her the record holder for the largest collection of cows, citing the 2,261 cow-themed figurines, stuffed animals, weather vanes, posters, colanders, pillows, slip covers, mail boxes, bells, and Eiffel tower in her home.
Except Tubangui doesn’t have 2,261 cows anymore. She’s since added nine more to her collection.
She started the collection in 1990 after a visit to her mother’s house.
“There was a very cute cow hanging over the microwave in my mother’s house,” Tubangui said.
Tubangui liked the ceramic cow so much, she eventually got her own. In the meantime, she sent her mom a postcard with a cow on it. Her mom framed it and gave it back to her, and that’s when the collection began.
“After about 20, I packed up my geese and my ducks, and I switched to cows,” Tubangui said.
The collection is displayed throughout the home: a shelf of collectibles in the living room, a case with the Cows on Parade line of figurines in the dining room, paintings of cows that Tubangui did on a wall in the garage. But there’s one room — the grand finale, Tubangui calls it — that’s officially the cow room.
The floor-to-ceiling shelves are loaded with cows. Flying cows hang from the ceiling. Cow-printed aprons sit next to cow-spotted brooms. A sign reads “Use Udder Door.” A stool in the middle of the room has — what else? — a cow print.
“They’re so special in different ways,” Tubangui said.
That’s because much of the collection came in the form of gifts.
“My family, friends, loved ones, and clients did all of this,” Tubangui said.
The clients are customers of La Petite Hair Shoppe, which Tubangui runs out of her home. She says the cow collection tickles her clients, and they often add to it.
So do her grown children.
“My children say they’re tired of it because they grew up with it, but they still give them to me.”
Tubangui’s favorite cow is a three-foot-high one her former neighbors and friends gave her.
“They called me and said, ‘Look out front,’ and they had put a rope around the neck.”
Tubangui wears cow jewelry and even has a tattoo of a calf. There’s also Dolly, a miniature pot-bellied pig.
“She’s a love,” Tubangui said.
Tubangui bought Dolly when she was just a pound; she now weighs 25. The seller had another pig, a pink one, but Tubangui liked Dolly’s black and white markings.
“I have a pig that looks like a cow since I couldn’t have a cow.”
The certificate from Guinness World Records hangs in La Petite Hair Shoppe so her customers can enjoy it. Tubangui said San Jacinto City Council is going to recognize her at a future meeting. She was told she’s the only Guinness record holder in the city.
And lest anyone think they’re going to take Tubangui’s title from her, they should know this: Tubangui says she isn’t going to stop collecting cows until she dies.
“And if it’s not a cow, by God, I’ll paint it like one,” she said.
