On grim and rainy days, when all you want to do is wrap up in a warm blanket and gaze outside watching the silvery raindrops dribble from the endless greyness, with a good book and your favourite cup of tea in your hands, we opted out for working in one of the greenhouses. The work in the greenhouse involved either “grading” young saplings or weeding, planting and trimming salad and taking care of fruit trees. Kölski, the jealous dog, kept us company. That day as per usual, he was lying about and dosing off, when suddenly he jumped up and shot through the back door of the greenhouse like an arrow! Jamie and I looked at each other with puzzled expressions on our faces. Normally Kölski would snooze most of the time and occasionally would slowly come up to one of us for some cuddles and attention. Therefore, this was a very strange behaviour of this extremely lazy dog. We rushed out to find Kölski.
When we got outside, Kölski had already returned to the greenhouse. He had a slightly suspicious look on his face. We had no clue what all the fuss was about until the next time it happened again another day. Again, we heard some loud and alarmed birdcalls and Kölski was gone in a split second. We followed the commotion right away. The big ginger cat was darting back to the house with Kölski closely following him. This is when we realised that whenever the wild birds made a distress call, the dog was on his way to rescue them from the intruder, whoever it was, the house cat or a neighbour dog. To our surprise, those birds had learnt that Kölski was helping them and they never felt alarmed around him. He could easily walk through the flocks of feeding birds, and they would not take off or seem disturbed by his presence. Birds just cheerfully chirped away and gracefully glided beside him.
Supposedly, Kölski learnt to protect these birds by observing Halla. She was sitting in her chair facing the window in the evenings, gazing out over the woodland, pastures and hills, taking out her binoculars and watching snipes, redheads and other birds feeding in the meadow adjacent to the house. He understood that she enjoyed watching them. He took on this responsibility to protect them. We were astonished by this behaviour of such a lazy dog and he became sort of a hero in our eyes.
His heroic presence faded away very quickly, as he can be a very pathetic dog other times. Often he followed us out to our planting sites. There he would lie about some dwarf birch and other birki thickets, which shining lush green against the often grey skies. However, whenever it rained or even just slightly drizzled, he would come up to me, and give me the saddest look he could muster, and sometimes let out a wee cry. Although, usually we were within a view of the house, he would remain by my side. Yet, he would stare at me with a concerned look as if asking, “Can we go home yet?”
Nevertheless, Kölski is so easy to amuse and cheer up. Jamie would distract him whilst I would hide somewhere in the thick foliage of the birch trees. Usually I did not have much time to hide as Kölski always kept an eye on me and did not let me out of his sight for too long. He would immediately rush after me and try to locate my whereabouts. I would sit still and quite amongst the crooked branches. I would watch him dart past me once, then flit back to where he started. The second (or sometimes 3rd) time he would calm down, take time and try to trace my steps until he would find me. The serious appearance from his face would vanish and a joyful sparkle would return to his eyes and the tail would be wagging franticly. He would lie down beside me as if asking not leave from his sight ever again. We would cuddle and lie amongst the vibrant bushes for a wee while.