I'm not entirely sure why it has taken me this long to get down to writing this blog. It's possible that I've had a touch of the PTS syndrome and I just haven't realised it.
Some months ago I started walking the family dog, Sheba, down the route known as the Wensum Way. This route had recently been updated with new signs and since part of it runs from the village to the river and Sheba is a lover of water she can jump in, I decided to explore. The first few weeks were great with us being able to go further each time we walked it. Then came the day there were cows in the field by the river.
All the signs along the route merely state 'dogs must be kept on leads where there is live stock' so I assume that it must be a herd of cows that were used to people an their dogs. What I didn't realise until I was crossing the end of the field opposite them is that you can't see the all white horns on an all white cow until you are at the right angle to them. At that point I started being nervous. What made me outright afraid is when I realised that they have calves with them.
For those of you who don't know, one of the best ways to get yourself killed on a farm is to take a dog into a field with a cow and her calf. At that point I started praying really hard. What made my prayers really desperate was when I realised that the cow closed to me wasn't a cow, it was the blasted bull! Most people have said 'you should have gone back' but to do that I would have either had to turn my back on them to turn round (not a good idea) or I would have had to have turn myself and the dog to face them (even worse idea as that is the move of a predator and would have threatened them). So I just kept walking slowly, telling the dog over and over to stay quiet, which thankfully she did.
When we made it up onto the embankment by the river I relaxed a little because I believed that no animal would wanted to come up hill towards a potential predator. I even let the dog go and have a paddle. Taking my eye off the herd seems to have been a bad idea though as I looked back to seem one of the (thankfully) uncalved cows coming up the embankment to towards us.
It is weird what the body decides to do under stress because I snapped at her "No! Go away!" She stopped and had a look at us so I said " Go on! Butt off!" (which could have been a bad thing if she'd taken me literately). She looked at me as if she was thinking 'that's not the normal response I get' and put her head down to sniff at the dog. Thankfully, when I started walking along the embankment she didn't follow.
I have rarely been as relieved as I was when I shut that second gate between us and the cows, only to then realise that they were between us and our way home. I was not going to tempt fate a second time so I had a very long way to walk home.
Once I was home safe I started doing some research because there had been no warning signs about the calves or the bull. Apparently if it is a permissive walkway then the farmer has no obligation to put up warning signs about his live stock or to put out any notices. If I had been a city person who had no idea of what to do I could have wound up dead because of one assumption based on the signs saying 'dogs must be kept on a lead around livestock'. That sign gives the impression that the livestock are fine as long as the dog is on a lead.
I was also told that the farmer is only obliged to put up warns if it is a public footpath but if it is a public footpath then it's not allowed to be a working farm. However, I know this to be wrong because there are many pubic footpaths in Wales that go along the edge of crop baring fields. A crop baring field only happens on a working farm.
I have also discovered a detour around the river portion of the Wensum way through the village and I have used it to check on the field by the river. The cows are still there and I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that they will remain there while the permissive walkway continues to be routed over that land. So much for paddling in the river during summer.
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