By Andrew Levy
Last updated at 1:00 AM on 31st March 2009
She must be the ultimate free-range farm animal. When Floss the Highland cow became separated from her calf, she immediately struck out on her own to look for it.
Nine months later she was still on the run - having travelled 60 miles across three counties.
The six-year-old's adventures earned the nickname the Beast of Ealand, after the area in Lincolnshire where she was found.
Floss was bought separately from her calf at a market in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, in June last year and taken to a farm in Goole, 42 miles away.
But her maternal instincts seemed to kick in and she escaped into a neighbouring field.
A vet was called in the following morning but was unable to get close enough to hit her with a tranquiliser dart before she trotted off.
Floss then began moving across country. In July she was spotted eight miles away in Thorne, South Yorkshire.
In early September, she was seen ten miles out in Keadby, North Lincolnshire, a village on the bank of the River Trent.
Later that month, she settled in an old tip in Ealand, near Scunthorpe - having travelled an estimated 60 miles on her round-about route. But the relative tranquility there was frequently shattered.
She was chased by yobs on quad bikes on one occasion and almost run down by joyriders on another. Her life as a renegade came to an end when police were called after some men turned up in a 4x4 to take pot shots at her.
Hearing of Floss's plight, animal rescue workers arranged to lure her out with food and she was captured using a tranquiliser dart last month.
She was then returned to her owner, and might have been destined for the slaughterhouse. But those who rescued her were so taken with Floss that they arranged to buy her instead.
Floss's journey concluded on Friday when she was transported another 150 miles to Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk.There she can spend the rest of her life ruminating on her wild young days.
Tracey Jaine, 39, who owns a smallholding in Crowle, near Doncaster, and who helped raise the £500 needed to buy Floss, said: 'I thought it was such a shame she was running loose and fending for herself.
'I thought of Hillside because a while ago I stopped eating mass-produced meat after watching various videos they had produced.
'I gave them a call to see if they would take her and when we raised the money to buy her we drove down there.'
She was helped by Sue McCauley, an administration assistant at a college in Ealand, who said: ' I was happy she got caught but I wanted to raise the money to buy her to keep her safe.
'Seeing her off at Hillside was fantastic. Floss trotted off the back of the trailer and it was the most wonderful thing.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1165838/How-Floss-runaway-cow-escaped-capture-months-saved-slaughter.html
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