Cow in the neighborhood

That was the subject line of the email I received from my mother today. It was from a neighbor. Seems she and her husband were driving home the other night and almost hit a black cow as they turned into the neighborhood.

Now if we were living in say, Central CA or Texas, on a long country road out in the middle of nowhere, then almost hitting a cow wouldn't be so shocking. But on the Central Coast of CA? Cows in the neighborhood are rare, very rare. We have stray dogs (or dogs that just run loose...grrrrr), lots of deer, plenty of squirrels, singing coyotes, fox, birds and snakes. The neighbor up the road has emu's and I think at one point they had llama's too. Somewhere in the mountains we have a mountain lion, I'm sure, but a cow? That's a new one.

There used to be someone who owned a lion. It lived up the hill from G.G. I remember it getting loose one time and the school being on lock down...or maybe I dreamed that. Somewhere in the surrounding neighborhoods there are chickens and a rooster. I'm not a fan of the rooster. I know that there are skunks out there, I've smelled them. We've had rats in the garage, but I'm pretty sure that Papa Bear eliminated them. The next door neighbor had a horse once. The local Bigfoot Museum people are convinced that a Bigfoot is living in the woods around town. But a cow in the neighborhood...that is definitely a new one.

Which brings up the question, what would you do if you walked out your front door and were greeted with a stray cow? Would you try to catch it? Would you shoo it away? Would you call animal control to come round it up? The neighbor who sent the email said that the cow just ran down the road after they came upon it with their car...they didn't hit it, don't worry. Should they have followed it to see where it went? My mind is filled with questions and I have to say, I'm a little curious about this cow, now.

I wonder if that's what has been waking me up the last few nights. I've heard the swish-swish-swish of what could be a tail brushing against the house. But usually the motion lights go on when something as small as a raccoon...oh yeah, we have raccoons too, runs down the porch. If I'm woken up again tonight, I'll have to check out what's out there.

A cow in the neighborhood. This one I really want to see.