The Laughing cow

    It was a beautiful, etherial, early summers morning just after day break. I was bringing the house cow down from her pasture to the milking shed, Sookie her name was, she was a loverly older Friesian, gentle and easy to handle. I opened the gate and called her out into the lane. 

     Technically, I had my dog with me, a yellow Labrador.  Her name was 'misty' but the family all called her 'gormless' she was defiantly a 'one sandwich short of a picnic' type dog. Up to that point she had managed to fall off a cliff, got herself shut in numerous sheds and barns, been ridden over, trodden on and still hadn't worked out that the pantry door opens just at the right hight to clout her round the ear. Still we all loved her.

     Gormless was sat in the middle of the path idly scratching her ear and lost in contemplating the clouds when Sookie cow crossed the lane.  Sookie started walking down the path she looked at the dog, who hadn't noticed her and waited for the dog to move. The dog, lost in her own world did not notice her, the cow then dropped her head, slipped one horn under the dog and tossed her neatly into the ditch, where she landed with a satisfying squelch amongst the wet mud and watercress. Gormless climbed out of the ditch dripping black slime with a rather fetching sprig of watercress behind one ear.

She looked at me with a bemused and hurt expression, as if to say 'what happened ?' 

     Sookie cow threw her head and tail up, skipped and danced down the lane with her big old udder swinging from side to side.

 I swear to this day I heard that cow laughing!