Hastings was injured driving at night in September 2007 when her van hit a black cow on County Route 53 in North Bangor, a hamlet near the Canadian border, according to court papers.

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Now, Ninja Cow, a fairly young Black Angus, is starting to calm down in Mr. Grell's small pasture.

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The animal inventory includes a camel and cow to supply milk, and until recently a flock of black partridges.

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The current wave of viral panic is of course the most recent chapter in a very long history of epidemics: Ebola in the 1990s, mad cow disease in the 1980s, polio in the 1930s and 1940s, the black death in the 14th century, and so on.

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