Facing Slaughter, Cow Makes a Swim for It

Perhaps there's good reason the old saying references lambs to the slaughter, instead of cows: Faced with her own imminent doom as slaughterhouse workers tried to load her on a truck at the Polish farm where she was raised, one precocious bovine decided to make an impressive run for it. Sky News describes the escape thusly: "She then ran into the nearby Lake Nysa in south Poland ... and appeared to dive underwater, before swimming over to an island, which has become her new home."

Her farmer's weeklong efforts to get her back failed, and she even dodged local firefighters, swimming away to a peninsula. Her efforts have impressed many, including one local politician who says, "If all citizens could show such determination as this cow then Poland would be a much more prosperous country." He's promising to get her to "a safe place and, as a reward for her attitude, guarantee her a long-term retirement and natural death." (More cows stories.)