By Susan Vela
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Animals did the darnedest things in Greater Cincinnati this year.

They were a source of laughter and embarrassment, anxiety and delight. They made plenty of headlines: "Mad cow? Ha! She's furious"... "Deer a danger to drivers" ... "Marksmen on alert for coyote pack."

And along the way, they gave us lessons in living more humanely.

Cinci Freedom - the city's most famous all-beef escapee - led the pack. The Charolais cow took off from a Camp Washington slaughterhouse in February, dashed through Cincinnati neighborhoods to Mount Storm Park, eluded red-faced authorities for 10 days and reminded Cincinnatians where pot roast comes from.

The brown-and-white cow, now fattened up and spending her days on a farm sanctuary in upstate New York, impressed Bob Dyrenforth of Amazon Street.

The Clifton resident heard the feisty, renegade cow charge through nearby brush and instantaneously forgot about bills, work and gloomy headlines.

"I saw it come flying by. It was just fun and frivolous," Mr. Dyrenforth said with a quiet laugh. "The city needs something like that every once in awhile, something a little less serious and less negative about the city. Because it's a neat city."

Sometimes, though, clashes between humans and the animal world took a serious - even deadly - tone.

In September, coyotes surfaced in Springdale, killing a poodle in the Oxford Hills subdivision and making residents rethink where they placed garbage bags and pet food. The coyotes were first spotted in Springdale's forested areas several years ago and continue to make surprise appearances.

Throughout the warmer months, mosquitoes infected with West Nile virus led local health officials to take preventive measures. In 2002, the virus caused three deaths in Southwest Ohio. There were 24 deaths across Ohio, five in Kentucky and nine in Indiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The problem could be worse next year, reappearing in June rather than August, Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram said.

And deer - gentle but incredibly prolific as the number of predators wanes - reminded us they could be dangerous, too.

More than 30,000 deer-car collisions are expected to occur this year in Ohio. In November, one caused the death of Clertude "Ke Ke" Bacour Bataille, a Felicity mother of seven.

Hamilton County Park District commissioners have approved a deer-management program that will permit specially trained park rangers to shoot and kill 500 deer this winter in three parks.

"It comes with the territory," said Harold Dates of the Hamilton County SPCA. "You have to be prepared at any time to deal with the unusual when you blend humans and animals. You have to prevent injury on both sides of the equation."

Springdale officials will send out notices next year, reminding residents of the dangerous coyotes.

Meanwhile, Cinci Freedom is adapting to life at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Did the cow's escapades change the way we think about animals that eventually wind up on our plates?

Mr. Dates likes to quote Ghandi, who once said: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

And Cinci Freedom "may have raised everybody's (consciousness) just a little bit," he said.

E-mail svela@enquirer.com