Bovine

4/5/14

Dozing off to sleep in the cozy warmth of my dark bed. Peaceful. Quiet. Interrupted.

I am not sure what I was aware of first, voices, footsteps, light, or my dog barking. I jumped out of bed, heart racing. I could hear Molly struggling to get out of her sleeping bag. I called her, and she barked.  Molly freed herself and ran out ahead of me into the lit up living room. Hearing a running vehicle outside, I flipped on the porch light and cracked the front door.

One of Star’s finest had come to my door…well, sort of.

The SUV backed down my two-house street and then came back up, pulled into the gravel drive across the street and sat there.  And sat there. And sat there. Then I heard it. The chain link fence had gotten disturbed.

Cop SUV number two pulled up and stopped right in front of my house. Caution lights flashing, and the back door opened up and a man with a rope jumped out. I told the Policeman that I had just heard the fence shake.  His reply was that a cow had gotten out.  The man with the rope walked past, looked at me and asked, “How are you?” I said that I was good, and reciprocated the question. He smiled and said he was doing well.

Cop number one told cop number 2 that the cow had taken off towards the street so they needed to head on down. I ran inside to put something warmer on, just in case I could help. By the time I came back to the front door, Cop SUV # 2 was still sitting in front of my house, lights on and still running, but no one in it.  Cop SUV # 1 was sitting just to the left of the intersection of my short little street, pointed towards the back of the neighborhood. Lights on and flashing, vehicle running. No one was in sight.

Looking to the end of the neighborhood, I saw cop car #3. Within minutes, cop car # 3 headed to the entrance of my neighborhood and left, dropping off a cop at SUV # 1.  I asked Cop # 1 if there was anything I could do to help. He asked if I would just double check SUV # 2 to ensure the doors were locked, and if they weren’t locked, to please do so.  “Sure!” I said.  Locked, they were. (Drat!)  In the quick exchange of those few words, I was also informed it was a bull that had gotten loose.  In that moment, I decided I wasn’t going to leave my front yard.

Cop car # 4 showed up.

I stood around for a few minutes and pretty soon, cop car # 3 came back, following a truck and horse trailer.

I waited around for a few more minutes and the truck and horse trailer left, and the  police started making their way back towards the abandoned vehicles, hitching a ride on the side of one of the SUV’s.  They were dropped off at their respective vehicles.  Cop # 1 pulled up in front of me and I said, “Exciting night!” he rubbed his face with his hands and, laughing nervously, said, “Oh Boy!” Then he started to tell me that he had never seen a bull run down the middle of the street in downtown Star. Me, being a visual person, imagined that and laughed incredulously.  I told him what my experience was as I woke up. He said that the bull had run into my back yard and between the two houses on my street (mine and my neighbor’s).  The bull rubbed up against my house (the footsteps and other noises) and people were chasing it (lights and voices).  Then it all made sense and Star’s finest left the neighborhood.  Apparently the man with the truck and trailer is a neighbor of mine. The bull doesn’t belong to him, but he was willing to put the bull up for the night until they could find his owner.

As a friend said in her comment to my post, “Exciting time in Star. Police cars and run away cows. Yes. In my neighborhood.”  (That was before I knew it was a bull.) “You know you’ve picked the right neighborhood when run away cows are the worst crime on a Fri night.”