I walk a lot with my bosses. Normally I like this. However, every now and then we meet strange species. Frightening I have to say. I warn my bosses loudly that there are threats at the horizon, my barking is alarming everyone in a wide area around as. This should be sufficient for my bosses to be on their guard. Unfortunately, they don´t listen. I don´t know why, whether that´s because they don´t see all the threats or because they are fearless.
They say something like, “be silent Ottar, it’s only cows”. Or they say something about horses when we meet huge beasts with people on them. Terrifying! But my bosses stay calm and try to distract me with their attention (and some treats of course).
But a few weeks ago we were almost attacked by one of the cows. We were walking in a nature reserve “Hjälstaviken”, north of Bålsta and there were lots of these dangerous cows, some of them even with their “puppies”. The whole group was running towards us; I alarmed everyone in the neighborhood as usual. The group were following us when we moved forward over the meadows. They came closer and closer. I shouted to those animals to stay away but instead they wanted to put their horns into me. This was becoming life threatening, at least I thought. At last my bosses agreed and we fled into a corridor towards an observation tower (for watching birds). A narrow escape! Here we were safe and could have lunch and I could calm down of all these exciting adventures. Happily, the cows walked on and we didn´t meet them anymore.
My bosses also prepare me for real hikes and walking in the “fjäll” (Swedish highlands). To protect sensitive areas there is quite a lot of board walking (“spång”). It also helps the walkers to pass wet areas. You’ll see below that “board walking” is a piece of cake for me.