Yesterday, Chewie and I rescued a cow.
While walking on the mount, we noticed the cows were congregated around one of the bottom gates, and there were a couple of ladies on the other side of the gates. Initial suspicion was that the ladies wanted to get on the mount, but the cows were blocking them. Soon, it became clear – as the walkers had exited the mount, one of the greedy cows had followed them through the first trap gate to get to the vegetation in the middle. As the gate closed behind her, the cow got trapped between the twin gates – meadow on one side, the heavy traffic of A31 on the other.
On realising its predicament, the cow started getting agitated – not letting the walkers back in to release the inner gate. Other cows too congregated around the gate out of concern.
Once the situation was clear, I put Chewie on lead, and we calmly walked down to the gate. As the other cows saw us approach, they quietly dispersed, leaving the gate access free. I stood on far side of the gate, Chewie calmly stood next to me, and opened the gate. The trapped cow, quickly scampered through – to the meadow, to other cows, to freedom!
The ladies thanked us, the cows gave us a grateful smile (I’d like to believe), and we walked back up the mount. Halfway up, I released Chewie off lead. He found the ball that he’d dropped earlier, and we merrily carried on home, happy1,2.