Escapologists

At work my computer wasn't functioning at all this morning so I used Kyla's instead as she was off sick. I can only assume the new server has somehow upset my PC as well as me. I'm very glad that I won't be back in the office until Monday now by when, hopefully, things will have been sorted out.

When we got to the common the cows were running around frantically, bellowing. They stopped to look at us briefly and then headed off into the woods. I spoke to a couple of other walkers who had just finished their route and they wondered if the herd had lost some of their calves as there didn't seem to be as many as usual. I thought they were probably right as I certainly hadn't seen ten of them (yes, I know exactly how many cows, calves and bulls there are!).

To be on the safe side, the dogs and I set off down the path parallel to the one the cows had just taken, on the other side of the fence. When we got to the end where the gate was I could hear the cows bellowing in the distance and decided to go through into the woods and keep an ear out for them. We went on our way but I suddenly realised the bellows were getting louder and then I could see that the cows had double-backed in their panic and were coming our way!

Basil was already on his lead but Polly was running free and, typically, when I called her she decided to misbehave and ran off. I eventually managed to get her on her lead and then fled, dragging the poor dogs behind me, running for dear life as the cows pounded towards us. As I already knew from my previous experience of being chased by them, they are bloody fast! Even though they weren't chasing us per se, I was very concerned about being trampled and was SO relieved when we got back to the gate and I closed it behind us, checking twice that it was properly closed.

The cows ran past along the parallel path and went bellowing off into the distance again, still panic-stricken. Although glad to be alive, I felt the dogs had missed out on their walk so I thought we may as well walk down the lane and back before going home. When we got back to the middle gate I noticed that the big vehicular gate was wide open. This was not good! I could see the cows running over the brow of the hill but thought I'd better close the gate pretty quickly in case they turned round and came back down again. I then Googled the South Downs National Park office number to call the herdsman but, before I had chance to call, the herdman's truck appeared on the horizon coming in our direction. As he drove down the slope at speed I could hear him calling, "Commme on, commme on" to the cows who, amazingly, followed him down.

I asked him what was happening and he said that the cows had escaped and there was another lot down the lane round the corner. I wished him luck rounding them up and headed off back to the car. As we drove back homewards I could see that the first group of cows were now in the pen by the gate and the herdsman was just shutting them in, presumably prior to going off to round up the rest. I hope he found them all, particularly those little calves.

Anyway, having had my exercise for the day I'm looking forward to a meal out with Mr DawnAgain this evening as it's our 20th wedding anniversary. Somehow we made it this far :)