This is what happens when you find a (thirsty) stranger (one to 20,000 cows, let’s say) in the Alps.

You call the Swiss army, and they’ll come and quench every parched bull, heifer and calf the eye can see — no matter what the cost.

Think it’s bull … ?

It’s not, because it happened recently (from July 20th to August 19th) in the Jura and Vaud Alps, when the long-ridiculed military outfit delivered more than 1,800 tons of water to the arid, fiendish herd.

More from The Local:

Four Super Puma helicopters and 120 military personnel were involved in the operation, which began after a sustained period of extremely hot weather critically reduced the amount of water available to cows grazing in alpine pastures.

Figures released to news agency ATS by the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) show that during the 31-day mission the helicopters spent 254 hours collecting water from lakes in the Jura to fill eight specially constructed water reservoirs, two in the Joux valley and six at higher altitude.

It didn’t come without a little bit of wrangling, however:

At the end of July the mission suffered a minor diplomatic incident when the Swiss army took water from lakes in the French Jura without permission from the French authorities.

The embarrassing incident resulted after Switzerland “misinterpreted” a communication from Paris over the issue.