Look who’s back :))
I knew it, because this morning I found the llamas like this (I don’t know if you can see their little white necks in the distance, I’ll zoom in)
Just staring at the new neighbours. I don’t know what’s so captivating about this, the cows are here every summer and don’t really do anything, but I think there must be some subtle cow drama I’m missing, that you can only follow if you watch them long & closely enough. Every time the llamas lay down to ruminate today, they chose to do it in this corner of the pasture near the fence so they could discreetly watch Cow Herd Grazing, their favourite reality TV show (well, Pampy was discreetly stealing glances out of the corner of her eye while Pampe & Poldine were shamelessly staring, half-hidden in the grass)
The Return of the Cows is Pandolf’s favourite day of the year! But every time there’s this terrible torture he has to go through, which consists in sitting still for a while and waiting to see if the cows still like him. (< I think that’s his perspective. In reality we’re just waiting to see if they’ll come to meet us / don’t seem afraid of him, before I let him run around them)
I love when I give him a command he finds torturous; he will obey but he’ll also glance at me literally every 2 seconds to check if I’ve changed my mind, with ever-renewed optimism.
(stomping tail on ground impatiently) Do I still need to sit? … okay, I’m sitting. …What about now?
But the cows did come to say hi and weren’t afraid <3
(Pandolf’s voice) You are so beautiful and perfect
Pandolf Gets His Cows Back Day is an official holiday on this blog by now, but I don’t think we can ever surpass the sheer joy of 2-year-old Pandolf getting cows for the first time. Still, every year on Cow Day it’s difficult to convince him to come home in the evening. He doesn’t stare at them in the nosy and gossipy way the llamas do; he looks at them like there’s an invisible thread of pure love between him and each cow.
Anonymous asked:
Does Pandolf go everywhere with you and accompany you on all your small farming endeavours? Do you think he’s paying attention to what you’re doing?
He does usually hang out with me all day long, except when he decides to go on little patrols by himself to check on the rest of his farm. This past week though I have been completely abandoned, because a farmer moved some of his heifers to the pasture next to mine and Pandolf is in love with the idea of finally having a herd of his own and a job as a proper sheepdog. He’s too busy for me now. From dawn to dusk he runs round his little herd with dedication and delight; if a predator showed up he would fend it off so much.
The cows are very kind to him and humour him as he tirelessly circles them to make sure they don’t scatter (they have no intention of doing such a thing).
Sometimes Pandolf the Sheepdog is like “Do not LEAVE the HERD! you might get LOST!! but I will go and save you” and the cow is like “I’m going for a drink of water young man, it’s quite all right, I won’t get lost. Look, the trough’s just over here.”
I was telling a friend the other day that I now have to wait forever when I call Pandolf at bedtime, even though he has a 5-minute commute to work, and I can only assume that’s because he goes round his herd giving each of his precious cows a goodnight kiss one by one and telling them “I’ll be back tomorrow <3” before finally running home.
