Make Cincinnati Weird!

Last week, Cincinnati lost a friend.

Cincinnati Freedom, the fugitive cow that drew worldwide headlines when she escaped from a Camp Washington slaughterhouse in 2002 and eluded authorities for 11 days, has died at an animal sanctuary in New York.

I don’t really remember this cow.  And I certainly did not know that her escapades garnered worldwide headlines and a book deal (I hope she got some royalties out of it).  But her tale sounds almost Paul Bunyan-esque.

Cinci became a folk hero in February 2002 when, moments before she was to be slaughtered, she jumped a six-foot fence at Ken Meyer Meats in Camp Washington and then evaded police and officials from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals while foraging in Mount Storm Park.

So long and moo, ol’ friend.  You will have been an inspiration to all of us who, buffeted on all sides in the crowded slaughterhouse of life, yearn to jump the fence of our responsibilities and seek an animal sanctuary in our hearts.

I imagine her headstone now reads:

The wide expanse of fields–bovine Eden

Landscape off my moo, moo dreams calls to me

Thoughts of childhood cows gets my heart bleedin’

I want to graze the sky so set me free.

Tudor Idris Lewis

via Visualingual