The Perils of Cow Herding

Mr Chocolate Britches and I went for a lovely walk up the Maitai last night. The Maitai is a river valley very close to the centre of Nelson. There are great swimming holes and if you go all the way up to the end, there is an amazing dam and lots of walks into the mountains. The walk we usually do is along the side of the river, under some bridges, through some fields and alongside a golf course. You can go for as long as or as little as you'd like.

Last night we were wandering along when Flynn got very excited - it was late afternoon and my eyesight isn't the best at that time, so I couldn't see what he was rushing after. Turns out it was cows. I've always seen cows as pretty docile, but nevertheless, after a bad experience with some superfast seals (who knew they were sprinters on land) I got Flynn's lead out to shoo the cows away should they decided to stampede me and trample me underfoot.

Turns out I needn't have worried as Flynn had them all under control and herded (his herding was running after them at a safe distance) them all the way to the big field about 3 minutes away. Once in the field he continued to run after them, but soon lost interest. I decided to turn back, but ran into Ruby Two Shoes and Stellar, so we went back to look at the cows again. Neither dog was very interested........that is until we came close to the end of the big field and for some reason Flynn decided he was going to take on the only cow with horns.

The cow and Flynn had their heads down and were kind of shuffling towards each other. Of course, all I could see was the flashing white horns and had visions of an impailed Flynn. So poor Ruby Two Shoes had to listen to me screech like a panicked fishwife in an attempt to get Flynn to back away from the cow.

It was touch and go.