This summer a cow hit me. Yes-yes, she changed direction 90 degrees and ran towards me two meters from the side of the road with a speed I could not imagine just to give a tennis like 'backhand' hit with her head into my headlamp. My luck was her position, perpendicular to my way so I was able to push her head aside and go further and the low target she had chosen, her horns left me only with a scratch on the right side of the bike.
Dear John, we have plenty of such like those around here, but most of the time cows and axes drive cars not bikes. My chance was, the one that hit me was walking then.