Cattle on the road, or why I love Warrandyte

Meeka’s Mind has hosted some strange animal pictures over the last couple of years – wild life, alpacas, dogs and cats – but I bet you never thought I’d show you a picture of this …

Hah! Well this fine fellow – notice the horns? – and I had a run in today, and I won!

I was driving home from an appointment, and passing a sort of hobby farm on my left, when I realised that the two cows I could see contentedly munching on the grass were actually on the outside of the fence. Ut oh and $hit.

I’m not a country girl per se, but I’ve been living in this fringe area for long enough to know that wombats, kangaroos and cattle don’t do well when struck by cars. The cars don’t do all that well either, but dents can be hammered out, broken backs can’t.

So what was I to do? I couldn’t just drive past without at least trying to help.

Seeing a driveway of sorts just up ahead, I turned off the road and went looking for help. When I reached the farmhouse there was another car there, on its way out. The other driver stopped, and we eyed each other.

Him:    “Do you live here?”

Me:      “No, I just came about the cows.”

Him:   “Oh. Me too.”

Apparently there was no one home and the two of us were just discussing what else to try when a third car drove up. The owner at last? Nope, the lady driver was just another good Samaritan.

Him and I decided to try the other hobby farm up the road so off we went. Him stopped out on the road. I drove in and went banging on the door. I couldn’t get anyone to answer and was just turning away when I heard a shout from the direction of the road.

Him had managed to shoo the cows away from the road and up into the front garden where I was. Oh great, what was I supposed to do now?

The two cows, one black-ish, the other brown-ish were trying to head towards the road again so I jangled the keys in my hand and took off across the grass. [Thank god the ground had dried out a bit otherwise my heels would have become bogged].

I managed to distract the escapees, and we all stopped, staring at each other with this, ‘okay, what now?’ look.

That was when I noticed that both ‘cows’ had horns. Bulls, nice one Andrea. They were still young, but already they were the same height as me, and the black-ish one was definitely not impressed with my five foot something of humanity. I could almost see him deciding that he could take me if he wanted to.

The awkward standoff was broken when another guy came running in from next door. This one was wearing coveralls and looked as if he was used to chasing cows, um I mean bulls.

We quickly established that the two escapees belonged to Mr Coveralls’ father. The only question that remained was how were we going to herd them into a safe paddock?

I truly wish I could show you the skill with which I drove across all that lawn, herding the bulls with my Toyota Corolla! Cowgirls eat your hearts out. 😀

To cut a long and exciting adventure short, we managed to herd the cows through the gate and into a paddock, which is where I finally managed to take the photo of The Black-ish Knight.

And the best part? The owner of the house finally came out and wasn’t at all angry at having a car zig-zagging over his lawn! Why? Because it was in a good cause. Warrandyters are amongst the most animal friendly people I have ever met. We protect each others dogs and other assorted beasts because we care. Go Warrandyte!

-hugs-

Meeks