CALAIS — Phil Lenentine won’t take any bull when he’s trading for cars, but he will take a young heifer.

For several weeks Lenentine Chevrolet, Olds, Pontiac, Buick Inc. on the River Road ran a series of radio ads that told potential customers that anything they could “push, pull or drag in” would be worth $2,000 in trade. In October, one unidentified customer, a Lubec man, took Lenentine at his word and offered to trade four legs for four wheels.

“He came up with a little bit of money, but it was not where he wanted to be for a payment,” Lenentine said. “He said, `I do have this heifer that is going to be marketable in a short time. I could offer you that for X-number of dollars more.’ ”

Lenentine was not cowed by the offer, chewed on it awhile, and finally agreed to take the heifer.

“After thinking about it, and realizing it was going to be a long cold winter, we decided we probably could use something like that. What the heck, we could help the guy out, and we could turn this thing into cash, providing we don’t lose it in the meantime,” he said.

The owner continued to feed the heifer and it grew. Last week, he called Lenentine and asked him to pick up his cow. Friday, activity at the car lot took an unusual turn when car salesmen suddenly became cowboys.

“We went down and got it,” said Lenentine. “We unloaded, and we had it in the parking lot ready to do all kinds of advertising pictures. It was a young heifer, and after coming off that trailer after a hairy ride from the farm, it took one look at all of the people standing around and bolted. It darn near took one salesman with it, until he let go of the rope.”

Monday afternoon Lenetine said, “… the meat has been on the hoof lately. We haven’t been able to find it.”

Enter the Calais Police Department and the Calais Public Works Department.

Sgt. Ralph Bridges said the city crew found the heifer strolling through the city’s former landfill. “They tied it to a tree in Officer Dave McLean’s yard,” he said.

Bridges said he did not know who had traded the cow. “…and I don’t know the cow’s name either,” he said. “I should have called Phil and told him `your trade-in is wandering around.’ ”

Monday evening, Lenentine reported that the cow had been recovered.