Cow involved in senior prank in Niles gets ‘perfect’ name from 90 submissions while students face charges
A week after a botched senior prank sent a cow running through the streets of Niles, the renegade bovine is healthy and adjusted to her new surroundings in Woodstock.
“She’s settled in and become quite friendly, and even walks up and will touch your hand now,” Hooved Animal Humane Society Executive Director Cynthia Glensgard said Friday. “Her personality is really starting to blossom.”
It was a prescient description, it turned out: The Hooved Animal Humane Society accepted suggestions for a name on its Facebook page and drew the name Blossom — “perfect for her,” in Glensgard’s words — on Monday from a pool of about 90 submissions.
Blossom also had a vet appointment and received a clean bill of health. The society has also raised almost $900 off of the flurry of attention she has brought, which Glensgard said “is great because we have the vet bill we need to pay for.”
The society has also fielded a handful of applications from people who wish to take the cow in. It’s been a busy week in Woodstock, Glensgard said. The society is taking more calls than usual asking it to come and evaluate potential cases of animal abuse or neglect.
“We’re out helping the other animals before they potentially fall into bad situations,” Glensgard said. “This little cow, she went through a tough time, but she won the lottery now... she’s going to help a lot of other animals,” Glensgard said.
Blossom initially made headlines last week after escaping into a residential neighborhood in Niles after a group of Northridge Preparatory School seniors purchased the animal on Craigslist from Winneconne, Wisc., along with a pig from Dixon, Ill. and brought the animals to school.
Several of the high schoolers involved in the prank were charged with a slew of violations to village code. Six of the students who were under 18 were charged with breaking curfew, according to police bulletins.
“Fourteen additional subjects were also located in the area but they were 18 years of age,” a police department report says. “All parties advised that they were in the area for their senior prank of bringing animals into the school.”
Police stated that they advised the students to not execute the prank due to the scheme necessitating a crime.
Other ordinance violations included disorderly conduct, permitting accumulation of animal feces and possession of a prohibited species of animal, per police department statements.