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Bovine bust in Tonganoxie leads some on cow chase

By Shawn Linenberger - | Sep 20, 2016

Savanah Reynolds went from a grueling test in a school to a wild cow chase later in the day.

Reynolds, a senior at Tonganoxie High School, had finished up with the ACT the morning of Sept. 10.

When she finished testing that Saturday at Basehor-Linwood, she found a slew of texts and missed calls from her mother, DeeDee.

One of Savanah’s red Angus heifer calves was on the loose.

It had been taken to Craig LaRosh’s veterinary clinic near U.S. Highway 24-40 and Main Street, but the bovine decided she wasn’t quite ready to head back to her farm home west of Tonganoxie some 7 miles near the Leavenworth State Fishing Lake.

“She just got through one of the panels when they were loading them back up,” Reynolds said, noting that her heifer got out about 10 a.m.

Reynolds’ animal took about a 6-hour tour of Tonganoxie. the bovine galavanted downtown, as THS instructor Andy Gilner told Reynolds he’d sighted the animal in that district.

She also was in the THS parking lot.

“Half of the football team was trying to catch her,” Reynolds said with a laugh.

Reynolds said the animal eventually got back to the vet clinic’s vicinity and was coaxed into a rancher’s pasture north of LaRosh’s clinic.

Her father, Storm, tackled the heifer in a pond. While bear-hugging the heifer in the pond, Storm’s cell phone sustained some water damage, Savanah said. Meanwhile, Savanah was waste-deep in water and fell down a ravine.

“She was pretty scared,” Reynolds said of her heifer. “I could just see it.”

Eventually, though, the family was able to get her on the road home and the excitement level had dissipated.

“We checked on her a few times, but she settled down fast once she got back with everybody,” Reynolds said.

The next week, Reynolds was the center of attention on the THS campus, being named homecoming queen before the THS football game.

As for the ACT, the THS senior was feeling pretty good about her efforts.

“It went pretty good, I hope,” Reynolds said with a laugh.