It sounds like an April Fool, but fire crews were called to rescue a bull that had fallen into a swimming pool in Devon last week - and was blowing bubbles.
At 11pm on March 31 crews from Paignton and Torquay were mobilised to the garden in Marldon, together with the animal rescue team from Exmouth and a specialist rescue tactical adviser.
It appears that the 600kg bullock had escaped from a nearby field, found its way into the garden and promptly fallen into the swimming pool.
The Paignton crew were first to arrive, and the officer in charge initially decided to pump some of the water out so the bullock could stand and support itself.
A spokesperson for the team said: "When they started pumping out the water the cow seemed to swim along the pool and investigate the pump!
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"Once the specialist animal team turned up, we all got together to discuss the best way to remove him from the pool, providing the least stressful way for the cow and the safest option for our crews.
"Large animal rescues can be very dangerous due to the unpredictable behaviour of animals, so crew safety is paramount."
They formed a plan to feed webbing strops under the bullock after getting him in the corner of the pool, then bring in a telehandler and lift him out supported comfortably.
Whilst this was ongoing a local farmer prepared a cattle trailer ready for him to move straight into.
The spokesperson said: "The operation went very smoothly, cow lifted, moved to the trailer, and was then held in the harness for a few minutes until he could support himself again.
"By this time, he had been in the pool for three-four hours and was very cold, with obviously numb legs.
"The harness we use provides the ability for the cow to stand just weight bearing, but still supported by the telehandler, where we can then pull a toggle mechanism from outside the penned off area by the trailer, which means the harness just fails to the ground and the cow walks away - no need to risk the safety of our personnel to physically get close to remove the harness.
"A really good outcome for one very cold young bullock.
"He did spend quite some time with his nose just below the surface blowing bubbles, which he seemed to enjoy!"
A couple of hours early for an April Fool, but the fires service must have wondered if it was a prank call!
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