Folks in rural parts of the city are asked to be on the lookout for a pregnant, 3-year-old Guernsey cow that escaped from her new home on Hosier Road shortly after arriving on Saturday.

Mona Lisa broke through the fence at the farm of her new owner, Nichole Stewart, less than seven hours after arriving on Saturday morning. Stewart is worried about the pregnant animal being alone in the cold.

“I know that she’s out there somewhere and is really nervous,” Stewart said. “My fear is she’s trying to get home” to her former farm in Chesapeake.

The new cow was delivered to the farm about 11 a.m. on Saturday, Stewart said. The new owners knew before her arrival the animal was skittish, but the cow seemed fine as she settled into her new home, Stewart said.

“We have a heifer,” she said. “They were getting along real well. She seemed like she was happy, and all of a sudden she was just gone.”

Around 6 that evening, someone pulled into the driveway and asked if they’d lost a cow, because one was in a field down the road where it did not belong. A neighbor’s son tried to chase Mona Lisa back to the farm but lost her in the dark, Stewart said.

Searchers spent all day Monday driving around the area and walking through fields with no luck, Stewart said. They even shook cowbells and feed buckets to try to attract her.

Now they’re worried Mona Lisa may have plunged into the Great Dismal Swamp in an attempt to go home to Chesapeake.

“She was going to be our milk cow,” Stewart said. “She’s in milk now, so we were really excited to get her, and now she’s gone.”

The owners have notified Suffolk Animal Control and are in the process of putting barbed wire around the top of their entire fence to keep her from knocking it down again if they do get her back, Stewart said.
“She was just determined to leave,” she said. “She pushed down our fence.”

Besides the heifer, the Stewarts also keep sheep, goats, pigs, turkeys and other fowl.

If you know the whereabouts of Mona Lisa, call 270-0216.