John Warner Author

Living in Cyprus you get used to all kinds of sounds during the night and early morning. During the nigh it can be someone on a motorbike with seemingly no exhaust and determined to make the whole of Cyprus aware of his presence, and on other occasions, there will be animal noises: cats defending their territory will screech with ear-splitting sounds that jolt you from your sleep, in some instances, close to where we live, an owl will also make himself known. Flocks of crows take flight every morning from the woods below us, the noise they make reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s `The Birds` as they settle on the overhead wires before flying off for their exercise and presumably breakfast.
Then we have a working dog on the small holding away in the distance, I say working dog because he barks from 5.30am until 7.30am every day except Saturday and Sunday, at least he is considerate regarding the weekend. But now it seems he has company, the other morning I was awakened at around 4.30 with a sound I have not heard since leaving the UK…a cow mooing.
I lay there and thought, no you are dreaming and rolled over to catch some more shut eye. A few minutes later there it was again, I got out of bed, went out onto the balcony and listened, nothing, then as I turned to come back in there it was again a deep mooing sound, I swung round, looked over to the small holding and saw?.. Nothing. I decided I would take a look later, I walked back in from the balcony a second time and as I did so there came a loud protracted moo, as though she was saying yes I am here, it’s no dream. But I could see nothing.
Later that morning my neighbour Loukianna and I were talking, first I mentioned the dog again, which is a subject we all talk about regularly, and then I said cautiously: “Have you heard….” and before I could finish my sentence Loukia said “The Cow?” She then explained that it was indeed a cow and that there were actually now two cows on the small holding and that she, the cow that is, was probably welcoming her stable mate. So although the mystery is solved I have yet to see said cow. I dread to think what they will bring next, I began thinking… mm two by two, they’re not are they? I will look out for any boat building in the future; well, we are not far from the sea after all. Thank You for reading this blog…John Warner
John Warner Author/ Creator The Tales of Padistan Bear
www.padistan-bear.com