EK family get amoosing wake-up call on Halloween

Nov 7 2012 by Andrea O'Neill, East Kilbride News

A St Leonards family got an unusual fright at Halloween when they woke to find a Highland cow in their garden.

The baffled Savege family alerted the Scottish SPCA after spotting the bewildered beast roaming downtheir garden path in Colonsay last Wednesday morning.

Dad Richard, 37, told the News his wife Lindsay, 34, didn’t ‘have a cow’ about the bull trampling on her daisies, as she is a huge animal lover... and said it was a nice trick or treat for their nine-year-old son Matthew.

Richard said: “I looked out of my window about 7.30am to find a cow in my garden.

“It was just standing there bemused and giving the occasional moo. The neighbours were all looking out of their windows and taking photos.

“We have two rescue cats so we are big animal lovers, and my wife likes cows, so it was a nice surprise.

“The SSPCA did a good job getting him back into the field. There was no danger involved, it gave us a laugh.”

Animal rescue officers Joanna Boyle and Gavin Law led the adventurousescapee safely back to Colonsay field.

They reckoned the cow was spooked by something and jumped over the fence earlier that morning.

Joanna said: “When the call came in I thought there must be a mistake. I was very surprised when I got there and saw there was actually a Highland cow in the front garden.

“Colonsay is a quiet residential street but it leads to a busy main road and the cow was beginning to stray towards it so we’re glad we were able to help. He was quite reluctant to go back into his field at first but as soon as he saw his three girlfriends waiting for him he went quite happily.

“There were no gaps in the fence so we think he may have been spooked by a dog earlier in the morning and jumped over.

“It was certainly a strange sight and one of the most unusual rescues we’ve been called to.”