the cows & a fox
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
one of the cows in the pasture we walk by every day
Soon they'll be put in the barn for the winter and we'll no longer see them dotting the landscape as we trudge along on our walk. They're big, beautiful, curious animals, gentle and trusting and unfortunately these particular farmers don't treat them as well as they should. They seem to think of them purely as a commodity, not as something live with a personality and feelings, but thankfully most of this herd's life is spent roaming huge expanses of pasture with very little interaction with their caretakers. Except - when they escape, which they do often, and it's never their fault. They escape because of faulty, old & dilapidated fencing and then, unfortunately, their in big trouble with the farmers. Yesterday morning when Winnie, Jake & I were walking way out on the sand flats, the tide was out as far as it ever goes out, I could see that five of the cows had simply walked over the one remaining low strand of barbed wire in a section of the fence and were feasting on the green, green grass growing at the end of the grassy lane. If left to their own devices, they will have a little stroll on the beach and then on mass, will trod up the grassy lane and on to Hugh & Dorothy's well manicured lawn & flower gardens. Sometimes, if no one notices them, they'll make it to the paved road or sometimes they'll take a detour down the cottage lane. They are very curious... and I think they really enjoy a change of scenery.
Yesterday morning we were late leaving the house for our walk - it's so dark in the mornings and I knew that we'd be walking alone as Carol had an appointment in town. It was 7:45am and almost completely light out. Our routine is - I stand by the car, both dogs are on retractable leads, and they do their every-morning sniff around the driveway discerning what & who has visited overnight as I stare up at the sky, because the sky is different every day. I happened to glance up the street and there in the middle of Black Street, only one house up, was a fox. He/she nonchalantly trotted across the street and into my neighbour Jean's yard. I put les chiens in the car and went back into the house to call Jean, she has 5 cats who by this time in the morning are all outside hanging in their yard. There have been reports of mishaps between foxes & cats and to a fox - cat or rabbit - it's all potential food to them. I normally let Bleet out each morning at 5am because he demands I do so and I always jokingly say to him "watch out for the foxes" but really believing that the foxes were only roaming around the outskirts of the village - not here smack in the middle, here on Black Street. So now I have to put up with Bleet's fussing & howling, meowing mournfully and his picking at my legs with his sharp little claws as I sit at my computer and type because he doesn't understand why he can't go out and I tease him and tell him he's so fat he'd feed a family of four foxes ... new rules at 29 Black St.
10:30 am update - it's snowing, gentle big flakes of flurries
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