WHITEWATER TWP. — Tread lightly when calling on this former escaped cow — Mademoiselle Charolais.

        For she has an attitude as wide as her behind and doesn't mind rattling her own cage.

        Early Tuesday afternoon, she lunged at a reporter who was peering through an observation slot on the opposite end of her trailer.

        Snort! Bam! Bang!

        “Well, that'll eliminate most people who've had a notion to take her in,” said Denny Dowers, volunteer cow catcher for the Hamilton County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

        The cavorting cow of Clifton was caught late Monday night — not without a struggle, mind you — 10 days after she leaped a fence at a Camp Washington slaughterhouse and sought refuge in Mount Storm Park, three miles away. The cow caper caught national media attention and captivated Cincinnatians weary of layoffs, boycotts and crazy weather.

        Twelve hours after her capture by high-tech forces, the dirty, brown-and-white Charolais stood defiantly in the heavy trailer on a muddy farm here leased by Mr. Dowers.

        He had just spent an exhausting five days helping track her in the park.

        “The infrared cameras really helped us,” he said. “People don't understand how difficult it is to capture a cow. They can move fast.”

        Now, she awaits “adoption.” Authorities say she will not be slaughtered. She has earned the right to live.

        Harold Dates, the SPCA's general manager, said it will take someone “special” to handle this spirited French animal.

        Two celebrities are interested. Former Reds owner Marge Schott of Indian Hill would take Mademoiselle, if she's agreeable with Mrs. Schott's other cows.

        “Marge has an electric fence,” a television reporter told Mr. Dowers.

        He grimaced. “Oh, it'd never hold this cow,” he said.

        Former “Survivor” contestant Rodger Bingham said he'd take the cow, too, for his farm in Northern Kentucky.

        “She's probably scared,” he said. “Where she goes, she needs to be with other calves. I've got 70-some acres and 25 head to help tame her down.”

        But then, he hasn't met Mademoiselle Charolais. The cow with the pretty French name again flared her wide pink nostrils, expelled a blast of hot air, shifted, shimmied, charged and shook the steel trailer in the mud.

        Mr. Dowers shoved a 2-by-4 beneath a tire for better support.

        “That'll do it,” he said. “I think.”

        Boom! Bang! Snort!

        “The public needs to know this cow is a formidable creature,” said Mr. Dates, hoarse from talking half the night.

        He should know. He helped catch her in an adventure befitting a segment from the Animal Planet cable network.

        At Mr. Dowers' suggestion, authorities waited silently for the cow to emerge from a heavily wooded area of the park. She did, and was promptly shot with a tranquilizer dart.

        Her pursuers managed to get a rope on her, but she jumped up and ran down to McAlpin Avenue, pulling a couple of guys along, and ended up in a neighbor's back yard, where she tore up some trees.

        “I weigh 250 pounds, and that cow was pulling two of us around like we weren't even there,” Mr. Dates said.

        Eventually they subdued her and, using a Bobcat's bucket, loaded her into the trailer.

        “Two minutes later, she was up on all fours and ready for action. She went bonkers in the trailer. When there's movement around, she goes nuts.”

        Mr. Dowers said the cow, which has had little human contact, might calm down now that she's away from her pursuers. He'll keep her — for awhile.

        Meanwhile, Mr. Dates said the SPCA will try to match her with a suitable home.

        How about it, Mr. Dowers?

        “I wouldn't touch that cow,” he said.

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