Just a few days ago, a cow made a grand escape from the slaughterhouse. According to the AP (it seems that they updated the article, and omitted the exciting parts), the 1,200lb heifer jumped a gate, ran to a residential neighborhood, blocked traffic in an intersection, got cornered by cops, bursts through someone's backyard, got almost hit by a Suburban, was chased down the road, dodges in front of a coming train and bought herself some more time, almost killed by a semi, made headway toward the Missouri, was cornered again, jumped the fence again into the river, swam half-way, almost drowned, caught herself on a sandbar, walked the rest of the way across, was cornered a third time, took three tranquilizer darts, and was still going. And then the workers surrounded her with sturdy metal fence with the only exit being a ramp into a stock trailer.

The owner will not slaughter her now, but wants to sell it for at least more than the amount he/she would make from selling the cow for meat.

Yesterday, a mouse got its revenge on its murderer. A homeowner caught the mouse, tried to dispose of it by throwing it into a pile of burning leaves in his backyard. The mouse, now on fire, crawled out of the fire, made its way back under the windowsill, set the house on fire, and died laughing.

Back in 1998, two pigs escaped from the abattoir. The pair of Tamworth Gingers (not terribly expensive pigs) ran away while being unloaded at a slaughterhouse. The squeezed through a hole in the fence, and swam to freedom across a river, earning them the nicknames Sundance and Butch. They outwitted humans for a full week before being captured. Now, this being in Britain, and only 3 years after Babe was made, understandably made big news over there. One of Sundance's parents is a wild boar, which, people surmised, might have something to do with its rebellious nature and cleverness.

I was going to make a crack about Animal Farm, but now I don't feel like it, since thinking about Snowball just makes me sad.