It wasn’t a burning building or an armed robbery that drew the response, but rather a herd of escaped cattle in the middle of Madison’s East Side. Rowin hoped the livestock had run off from a broken-down cattle truck, but a police officer confirmed what she suspected — the cattle were from her family’s farm half a mile west on Milwaukee Street.

“I called my dad — he happened to have a cellphone in his truck at the time — and he said, ‘Make sure you have your tennies on,’ so we went chasing after them,” Rowin said...