I quite like cows. They have soft brown noses and eyes that look at you with a cross between an air of curiosity, fear and disgruntlement at being disturbed. They also scare me just a little. Mainly down to their size. I would never want one to fall on me.
I am a seasoned rambler. Having walked literally hundreds of miles through fields and woodland over the years and have never found a herd of cows particularly daunting. Always follow the country code, stick to the paths and close any gates.
Given my cow experiences I wonder if they sense that somehow they can give their fellow herd members signals to show that they are up for a laugh at my expense.
It all started one night driving home over The Moss when there was an eerie sort of something further down the road in the distance. They looked like cats eyes, but higher up. And then I realised! It was a herd of cows across the road heading towards the car. Oh my goodness, this is a scary sight in the pitch black. The cows looked even bigger in the dark. Hazards on, I stopped the car. We were the only car on the road but just in case another vehicle came hurtling along into the herd. Then sure enough some numpty thought he'd overtake, slamming the car brakes when he realised why I had to stop. Luckily no cows were hurt. The cows were advancing towards the cars. Then arrived a very tired and disgruntled farmer with a couple of Collies and the cows were herded safely back in the field. Saved.
The next cow incident was during an innocent walk in the Douglas Valley near Parbold where we needed to cross a field to get to the Fairie Glen. We arrived via the public footpath which then crossed the field. A route we had taken many times before. There was a herd of cows and they looked quite menacing in a cow sort of way. We decided it was OK as they would move case went towards them as this is what usually happens. Three walkers and two small dogs. Suddenly, I really didn't feel comfortable, something wasn't right but knew that we needed to get to the opposite side of the field. Then the farmer arrived, told us to stay back, and cows were herded on to the next field. Saved again but wonder why we were apprehensive. We will never know, we just continued on to the Fairie Glen. Saved again.
You would think we would know by now not to brave these situations and just take a normal route, nothing too far from the beaten track. Well sort of. It was a lovely summers evening and we were walking our dogs along the Fishermans Path near to where we live. The Heath is accessible through a kissing gate and a stile. The sign warns people to keep dogs on a lead as there is livestock grazing. This is fine, we had done this many times before. The cattle and sheep have usually kept their distance as we walked along the perimeter footpaths of The Heath with our two dogs safely on a lead. As we walked along, we discussed the recent newspaper article about the woman who had been crushed to death by a herd of stampeding cows and jokingly hoped that it wouldn't happen to us.
Then we saw it. Coming towards us. That cow was GALLOPING!! Now joined by two of her friends. This was the day that I found out that cows can gallop at quite some speed. I yelled to my husband RUN!! I turned and ran as fast as my legs would go. I never run anywhere but I ran like the wind. Not looking back to check if Tony and the William dog were behind. I threw Penny dog over the stile and leapt over to safety, quickly followed by the others. We stopped, out of breath and laughing at the crazy experience. A man with a dog was the other side of the stile about to go in to the Heath. I told him we had been chased by cows. He laughed, looked at me like I was crazy, and carried on over the stile. A few minutes later he was back, oh I wonder why!! I just smiled and thought to myself "told you so". I'd like to say that I avoid fields of cows but it's impossible if you enjoy a good walk, sooner or later the public footpath will cross a field of cows. if you are a rambler it goes with the territory.
Apparently, it is when they have calves that they become over protective and bordering on aggressive. They can't be blamed for protecting their babies.
And I still like their soft brown cow eyes. Have you seen cows eyelashes they are really thick and long?
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