Yesterday I told you about things that were fun to chase- cars, deer and rabbit. Today I thought I would close this theme of wildlife with some warnings!

Firstly, some animals are very small. These include things like mice, shews, voles etc . These are very chasable but have very annoying habits of disappearing in grass etc so you just cannot find them again. In fact I wonder if they can actually make themselves vanish. It can be rather frustrating going after these animals! I have to confess that Monty has a better success rate than me as he is very patient and lies in wait for them and then pounces!

Squirrels are a bit bigger- a reasonable size to chase after, and they have brilliant tails which are just made to wrap your mouth around. Sadly, I have never managed this as the squirrels I chase have learnt to climb trees and so get too high up for me! Sometimes I sit at the bottom of the tree hoping they will fall off but this hasn’t happened yet. We saw a red squirrel the other day, My female human told me it was special but I think she was having me on.

Some animals are very big. Even bigger than me. These include horses and cows. Cows can be quite scary as they are interested in me and run towards me sometimes. I have had some bad encounters on my walks. The best thing with cows is to leave them alone and get away from them as fast as possible. Some cows are Ok when you get to know them. There was one on my walk who always got out of the field and was on the track. I learned to walk (quickly) past her and ignore her. I was very proud of myself and made sure my humans didn’t see how scared I really was.

Horses are not as scarey as cows. They usually ignore me and so I can be challenging towards them and raise my hackles and bark at them, trying to provoke a reaction. I only do that if they are in a field and cannot actually reach me. If they are in the same place as me I try to ignore them. There was a horse in the forest on Sunday with a human riding it. Hilary made me get on my lead and didn’t let me chase it and bark at it. I think she was worried in case the human got scared or fell off.

Finally, small things can be nasty too. Especially some insects. These are tiny little flying things who are made to catch in your mouth. However my humans tell me this is dangerous as some of them can sting ! We had a wasp in the sitting room the other night. I tried to catch it but Tim made me leave it alone. He told me it would really hurt me. I can’t see how a small wasp could hurt a big dog like me but I left it alone and watched him get the wasp out of the window!

I have just remembered a should say a few words about cats. Cats are animals too and also good to chase. They have sharp claws however so you must be careful. Cats can also jump up and get in places you can’t. However you must never be too mean to a cat or you will upset your humans, especially the female kind,so it is best seeing cat chasing as a game rather than a serious sport.

I hope you have enjoyed by blogs on wildlife and animals.