Mad cow walking

Yesterday as we were on the way back from dropping off more crap at our new house, an errant cow found its way onto the road. Up near our house, where there are lots of open fields, that wouldn’t be such a weird thing, but this actually happened in the village proper, where there are rows upon rows of buildings. Sure, just beyond the shops of the busy village center there are fields and farms, but this heifer had to stray pretty damn far on its own to get where it was.

We were patient as the errant cow made its way across our lane, but as it crossed to the oncoming lane, a guy in a sporty car decided it would make sense to blink his headlights at it. I am not in any way fluent in cow communications, but somehow I think the best cow whisperer would tell you this is probably not a good idea. Who knows what the cow actually sees, and what it thinks about what it sees? At any rate, this cow seemed to interpret the blinking headlights as a “come hither” thing and so it slowly made its way towards the sports car, at which point the guy proceeded to honk at it endlessly. I don’t know about you, but if I have a moon-eyed cow coming my way seductively I don’t think I would honk at it, because who knows, to a cow this honking could sound exactly like another cow wanting to mate. All I know is that when we decided we had seen enough of the spectacle the cow was still meandering towards its bleating lover.

A bit further down the road we were stopped again by a herd of goats crossing the road. At least now we know – we have to be aware of animals not just up around our house, but all the way down the mountain road. And whatever you do, never honk at a cow.