Another Mountain Weekend Spent Admiring the Cows

We headed for the mountains and their beautiful leaves. It's a wonder we made the trip in any decent amount of time due to all the sightseers driving along the two-road highway at truly pokey speeds. We arrived at my grandparents where my husband, stepbrother and stepdad spent several hours packing for their weekend camping trip on the cold and windy mountain. Their campsite didn't allow dogs, making my husband sad and making me truly thankful for the excuse. Jake eyed the packing sadly and couldn't understand why he couldn't steal the ice cubes out of the big cooler. Little did Jake know that a full weekend of staring at his cows was just ahead. After the fellas left for their campsite, my mother and I took Jake for a walk in the colorful cove alongside the pastures. At the sight of his first cow, Jake began bouncing and prancing along the path. Who needs camping and hiking when there are COWS! Despite being chilly in the shade, the day was still fairly warm in the sun and most of the cows had retreated to the trees for a little rest. A group of calves were playing a game of chase and stopped only occasionally to glance at Jake. During the summer, Jake always gets a swim in the river. He had a hard time understanding why this walk didn't culminate in an icy swim and practically dragged my mother in the water after him in a vain attempt to get wet.



That very evening the cows had moved closer to the end of the pasture next to my grandparents' house so I took Jake back out to see them. A very pregnant cow wobbled over to Jake at the barbed wire fence. I'm pretty sure she's normally the same cow who pushes her way through the baby cows to assess Jake whenever they gather at the fence. She stuck her big nose out through the wire to sniff at Jake. Jake, ever fearless in the face of cow, stuck his black, wet nose smack dab on the end of her furry nose. They both stood there sniffing in and out rather loudly. Jake gave her nose a little lick. She snorted but kept her nose pressed to his little one. Pleased with himself, Jake subjected the cow to a big lick. To my utter surprise, the cow licked him back with a big, pink gooey tongue. Jake immediately began having the zoomies and it was all I could do to keep the zoomies from connecting Jake with that barbed wire fence. Cow kisses are apparently very exciting because Jake wouldn't come down off his cow high for a good half hour. His new best friend is the cow pictured below:



And since we'll be missing Jake's fifth agility class due to an out-of-town obligation, hopefully Jake will dream of cows and not even notice he missed a class!