Maybe poor Dunkley confused the green pool covering for a patch of grass.

Maybe she just got curious when she was wandering beyond her usual grounds over the weekend.

Thanks to a team of Cape Ann firefighters, Dunkley was safe and sound Monday. But that was only after a team of firefighters - with the help of a tow truck - pulled the cow out of an Eastern Avenue swimming pool Saturday morning. The cow had escaped its pen and plunged into the icy water while trying to cross the pool's winter cover.

Around a dozen firefighters responded to a farm after receiving a call for help at 9:45 a.m. Saturday. They found the cow with its head above the water, resting against the side of the pool and its legs submerged, sticking through the pool cover, Essex Deputy Chief Paul Doucette said Monday.

Doucette said his men tried unsuccessfully to drag the cow, which was shaking because of the 30-something-degree temperatures, out of the pool by its hindquarters before the tow truck arrived from Ernie's Service Station.

Firefighters slid a set of straps underneath the cow, and the truck hoisted the animal out of the water and dropped it back on dry land about 30 minutes after the call was made, Doucette said. Once the cow was out of the pool, the men covered the bovine with blankets to try to warm it up while a veterinarian was called in to make sure the animal was not injured.

Dunkley was walking around and doing fine Monday, said Chris Fogarty, who was working on the farm.

Fogarty said someone must have left one of the gates to the cow pen open, allowing some of the cows to get out and roam around.

Manchester firefighter Warren Grant, a former Essex firefighter who was called in because of his familiarity with livestock, said he didn't know why the cow tried to cross the pool, but may have mistaken the pool's green cover for grass.

Grant, who worked on a farm for 20 years before becoming a firefighter, said the only similar incident he had been involved in was when a horse escaped from its stable a few winters ago, ran out onto a frozen salt marsh and eventually fell through the ice.

Grant estimated Dunkley weighed more than 1,000 pounds - and said cows are not known for their ability in the water.

"They can do a doggy paddle for a little while, but are not really built for swimming," Grant said. "She was pretty worn out by the time we got to her."

Patrick Anderson writes for Gloucester (Mass.) Daily Times.