Lately, my cat Milo has been joining me in the forest. He’s already a 14-year-old senior, but he’s still an energetic, playful and sociable companion. I’ve been taking him with me everywhere since he was a kitten, and we used to spend a lot of time in the forest together even ten years ago. He also joins our family on boat trips. Last summer, he went on a kayak for the first time, and that went really well too.
One day, Milo and I went mushroom picking together. When we arrived at the forest, Milo eagerly jumped out of the car. Then we set off along the trail. Milo often walks ahead of me at a good pace, and walking with him isn’t much different from walking a dog. Sometimes, though, he walks so close to my feet that I have to watch my steps and make sure I don’t get tangled in the leash.
It didn’t take long before I found some funnel chanterelles, one of the best edible mushrooms. I immediately started picking, while Milo patiently waited beside me. As I picked mushrooms, I lost all sense of time and direction. I moved only a few steps at a time before crouching down again, my eyes constantly on the ground.
Funnel chanterelles are the kind of mushrooms that are difficult to spot because they blend in so well with the forest floor. But once you find the first ones, you start seeing them everywhere.
Every time we passed a fallen tree trunk, Milo insisted on climbing onto it and walking along it. I suppose it might be something similar to the way a cat has to climb into any box it finds. I let Milo have that little joy, and waited for him by the trunks each time.
Milo isn’t any particular breed, but I think he has a lot of Siberian cat in him, both in his personality and his appearance. He’s a really good cat for a family with children because he isn’t easily startled by anything and doesn’t seem bothered by all the commotion. He’ll even settle down right in the middle of the children’s play.
The forest was so beautiful, bathed in sunlight. The light made the moss so green that it almost hurt my eyes.
My favourite place in this forest is this rock slab covered in sphagnum moss. It’s like a candy store in shades of red and green. The heathers adds its own atmosphere. Stiff clubmoss also grows there.
This was when I remembered that I had packed a thermos of coffee in my backpack. But I just couldn’t bring myself to stop yet. We continued down the rock, where the forest became darker. The ground was mostly covered in red-stemmed feather moss, which is Finland’s most common moss, with fallen spruce cones here and there. My basket was starting to fill up.
What I like most about Milo is that he’s not easily frightened. If something unusual happens, he never runs away, but simply lowers himself to the ground and calmly watches what’s happening, while staying alert. For example, this is what he does when we encounter dogs on the trail.
Strangers who suddenly appear on our trail are also a little unsettling for Milo. In these situations, I pick him up and carry him for a while. When I put him back down, we continue on our way at our usual pace.
A funnel chanterelle can be recognised by its yellowish, hollow stalk and trumpet-shaped form. In older mushrooms, there is a hole in the cap that continues down into the hollow stalk, while young mushrooms have a solid cap. There are no gills on the underside, but rather ridges. They often grow among moss, and at first you may only see a brown cap poking out, looking remarkably like an autumn leaf lying on the forest floor. But once you learn to recognise them, you can spot them from a distance among all the other brown mushrooms.
Funnel chanterelles are easy to pick: they are usually very clean and don’t have worms. I basically just snap off the small amount of soil-covered stem at the base, or cut them with a mushroom knife right at the soil line.
It was only towards the very end that we finally allowed ourselves to stop for a break. I had some coffee. Nothing beats the feeling of having a basket full of mushrooms and a thermos full of hot coffee. And to top it all off, I had this quiet, loyal forest companion sitting on a fallen tree trunk beside me, almost falling asleep there.
We sat there for probably half an hour, enjoying the forest around us, now that I finally allowed myself to properly lift my eyes from the ground. Of course, I spotted plenty of mushrooms around us too, which I went and picked towards the end of our coffee break. Just before we set off again, I gave Milo a cat treat.
Finally, we returned to the car. Milo hopped in cheerfully and retreated to his usual spot. When we got home, he went straight to sleep and slept so deeply the whole evening that he didn’t even wake up when the children came home, bringing all their noise with them, or when they came to pet him.
I think Milo would agree that it was a good but tiring day in the forest.
At the end, a little video of Milo’s forest trips
🐾♡
😻🌳
What a lovely companion you have for your walks <3
(and what a beautiful basket)