One of the great things about living in the country is the wildlife and the country walks on our doorstep. I really appreciate this now – especially as I will shortly be an urban dog! On my walk this morning I encountered lots of wildlife, and decided to share some thoughts with you all.

First- we have flowers. Now let me make one thing clear, Flowers are not animals. They do not taste nice, smell nice, or even move (unless blowing in the breeze) so they are no fun to chew or chase. Yet humans, especially the female kind, often go all sentimental over them. I really do not know why. This morning for instance we passed heaps of wild primroses in the woods- nasty little yellow things on the ground. Hilary got all soppy telling me how pretty they were and how this meant it was spring. Silly human. The only thing to do with flowers is to destroy them by digging them up or simply trampling all over them.I am good at that.

Then we have birds. There are a lot of these around and they make little chirpy noises that humans like, though they do not sound half as majestic as my barking. I see lots of birds every day, both small and big. The thing about birds is that they can fly. It is really mean when they do that as I can’t fly after them. I usually run as fast as I can after them hoping I might take off too, but no luck so far. Today there were lots of birds around including one which was green with a red head that was unusual. I also chased a grouse but it flew away too. Mind you, very occasionally a bird is injured and cannot fly, so I can chase it properly. That happened to me earlier this week- I was out with Hilary in the field and saw two big black crow type birds. I ran towards them and as expected, one flew away from me. But the other one simply hopped a few yards away. It didn’t seem able to fly. I got right up to it and could easily have caught it, but I decided to be sensible and return to my human who who was shouting to me to “leave it” and running the other way! When I got up to her she gave me a treat and called me a clever dog. I think she thought I was responding to her whereas I was just being kind to the bird that particular time. It won’t go far away after all!

Finally, for today, we have sheep. Today was Good Shepherd Sunday at church which my humans call “Sheep Sunday” so it is very appropriate. I saw lots of sheep and lambs today and again my female human thinks the lambs are really cute. But I think sheep are rather silly animals and would be good to chase. However my humans do not let me chase sheep so I usually get put on a lead when there are sheep about and have to limit myself to barking at them and looking fierce. I did that today to a sheep with two little lambs in a field beside where we were walking. They were remarkablly unphased by me so I was obviously not scarey enough. A bit later on my walk I saw another field of these silly sheep and they were being rounded up by two clever dogs! It looked great fun and I was tempted to go and join in.

I will tell you more about some other wildlife soon, including my favourite things to chase!