802 Online

I can't believe this wasn't the first thing I posted this morning. So last night a little after 8, Ann-Elise and I were driving past the dairy farm down Mallett's Bay Ave, about a mile from our house on North Street in Winooski. Suddenly, a dark shape darted out in front of the car. I thought it was a deer, or a moose, but no — it was an enormous black and white dairy cow.

I slammed on the breaks and barely missed her. The car coming towards us in the other direction wasn't so lucky — they smacked into the cow doing I guess about 35 mph, though they were slowing down as it happened, I think. Knocked the cow over. I could see its legs in the air when it rolled. But it got up and walked over to the barn! I couldn't believe it.

The driver of the car got out, shook the broken glass off her sweatshirt. Her passenger was hurt. Another driver pulled up — he had just missed the cow and had turned around to come back and tell the farmer. He corralled the hurt cow, and kept her off the road, shouting, "hey Bossy, hey Bossy, c'mon." He seemed to know what to do with her, and also seemed to know the people who owned the farm, and their neighbors, which was comforting. Other drivers stopped, and somebody went up to the house to get help with the cows. Ann-Elise and I clapped our hands and yelled at a couple other cows that had also jumped the fence, to keep them from running into the road.

It took Colchester Rescue a few minutes to get there, but they responded with ambulances, and the cops came. When we left the scene, the cows were all back in the pens, including the one that had been hit, and the EMTs were getting out the stretcher. There was nothing more we could do. I hope everybody's ok.

It's a little surreal to think that this kind of agricultural scene could play out so near our house in Winooski, the most urban, densely populated city in the state. It's definitely a different world, and it's disappearing. Treacherous cow crossing or no, I find that sad.