Rose working yesterday on Bedlam Farm.

Rose is on several book covers, has inspired at least three, including my forthcoming novel, “Rose In A Storm.”  She graces the children’s books I am doing, countless blog posts, stories and photos.

I believe that we get the dogs we need, and that the lives of dogs ebb and flow. Rose’s time seems to come again and again. It was her time when I moved to the farm in 2003, and turned to this energetic and purposeful six month old puppy to help me survive here. It was her time again when we lambed and I had a growing flock. Her time when we helped so many farmers round up their sheep, goats and cows.

Her life was quiet this year, but it is her time again. She inspired a fictional Rose in my novel, and has sheep back on the farm again. And she is showing her stuff at Merck Forest, where she is teaching ewes and lambs to work with a dog as a flock. Today she took them out to graze. The Merck people were a little nervous about whether or not she could get them back into the paddock, but I was not. Rose gets it done for me, again and again. How could I be anything but confident about her?

She is in her prime, busy, confident, working, evolving. Rose has been making decisions since she was six months old, and she makes a lot of them now, and it has been compelling, to say the least, to watch her grow and see her mind change.

This is her time, her moment, her year. She is a remarkable creature in so many ways.