OK, I readily admit this next story isn’t focused solely on our favorite companions, but at least they’re on the periphery of the tale.

The story’s focus is on a cow or a pensioner depending on your point of view. Personally cows scare me, pensioners not so much.

It turns out I’m not the only one who feels this way if only because of the sheer size of the animals. I suspect I’d climb a tree too if one came charging at me.

This is Nottingham has the full story.

FIREFIGHTERS are warning dog walkers to avoid fields with cows in after a pensioner had to be rescued from up a tree.

The 79-year-old woman had climbed up a hawthorn in Newark and been stuck for two hours after she and her two dogs were chased by a cow and a calf.

Brian Smith, watch manager for Newark Fire Station, said he only found the woman after spotting her pet Jack Russell hiding in the long grass beneath the tree, trembling.

Mr Smith said: “We normally save kids up trees but not 79-year-old ladies. I was expecting it to be a child. She said the cows had chased her.

“If you do come across cattle, let go of the dog and the cows will chase them. Dogs will outrun a cow, unless it has arthritis like the lady’s little dog did.”

The woman’s other dog, a golden retriever, is believed to have scared off the cows while hiding in a bush below the tree.

So which would your pup be more like: the trembling Jack Russell or the Golden Retriever?

Pic is of Dogster/Bovine member Polo