A wedding ring lost by farmer Johannes Brandhuber while feeding oats silage to cows on his farm in Simbach am Inn in southern Germany later turned up at a local butcher’s, the Passauer Neue Presse reported on Tuesday.
Brandhuber, 32 and married just two years ago, lost the ring one Sunday morning in November and thought it gone for good, only to get a phone call four months later from Josef Steinleitner, a butcher in Vilshofen an der Donau, some 50 kilometres away.
His staff had found the ring in the rumen of a cow called Herzal – Bavarian for “little heart” – Steinleitner revealed.
“I’ve never seen something like this. It’s unique,” Steinleitner, a butcher of more than 40 years standing, said. The find had come about only because his 135-year-old family operation still slaughtered by hand, he said.
“It’s a lucky coincidence to find such a small thing,” he said. He noted that small metal items, such as screws could often find their way into the rumen, a large compartment in a cow’s digestive system.
Brandhuber said he had all but given up hope that the ring would be found, while his wife had not. “She was very pleased,” he said. On noticing the loss, he had searched the stable from top to bottom, without success, before going out to buy another ring.
The original ring was badly worn after months in the cow’s rumen, and the initials could only just be made out. The cow had been named for a heart-shaped white spot on its forehead.
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