The Rescue of a Stranded Cow

The afternoon I arrived in Tezpur, I spent a few hours along the river. At one point, I was standing up on the shore, and was perhaps 10 or 15 feet above the water. Some movement caught my eye below in the river and I looked down to see a cow approaching the river's edge. I found this a bit surprising. I didn't realize that cows could swim, and this one was most definitely swimming. It got the edge and stepped up on the sand. However the little cliff was so steep that it couldn't get back up.

The people up on top just looked down at it, but didn't do anything to solve the cow's problem. Even the other cows up top were just looking down at the stranded cow, possibly thinking to themselves, “This is why we get a reputation for being stupid, you stupid cow. How could you do this to us?”

Then along came a boat along the river. I'm not sure what they were doing or where they were originally going, but the saw the stranded cow and decided to help it. First they tried to get the cow up the little cliff where it was. But the edge was just too steep.

Then they decided to make the cow swim to a better location. So they chased it out into the water again. But it started to swim in a direction they didn't think was helpful.

So they gave chase in their boat and caught up to it.

Then one of the men grabbed the cow's horns and held it as they rowed downstream to a spot they thought was better. It seemed the cow was just being docile at that point, allowing the man to basically drag it through the water.

Once they got the cow to the good spot, where there was a steep, but manageable path up the bank, they chased the cow onto shore and then herded it up the embankment to freedom. It was quite the process and was good for a few moments entertainment. I enjoyed the show quite a lot. And it was also good to see a stranded cow get rescued like that.