I have to confess to feeling a bit strange when Darryl Kuehne arrived with the sheep today. I saw the ghost of Rose all around me. Had she been here, Darryl would have opened the trailer and she would have jumped in, pushed the sheep out and herded them right through the gate, as she has always done.

She was not here, and it was a bit of a riot, Frieda barking furiously in the yard, the donkeys charging down the hill, the sheep running to hide behind the Pig Barn. It took us awhile and some grain to sort it all out. Herding sheep is almost always a clusterf—, despite what you see on TV and at herding trials. It almost always works out in the end. I forgot to do the planning necessary without Rose: Frieda in her crate, the donkeys in the barn. My bad.

I do miss Rose, and it will be very strange working sheep with another border collie. I’ve never really worked with any other dog, at least not successfully. “Boy,” said Darryl, “it sure was easier with Rose.” It was. I will move on with this great new dog Red, but I will miss her and think of her, and I hope her ghost will run in the fields with us sometimes, for old times sake. I think Red wouldn’t mind.

— Advice and testimonies regarding Red are pouring in and I’m getting a bit edgy about it, which I should get over. I don’t like being grumpy, it is no appealing to me, although this issue has come up before.  One person urged me to talk with Red and explain Karen’s absence to him. I said I don’t explain things to dogs in words they don’t understand. They are not nervous children. Another person said she would talk to an animal communicator at this point for advice and insights into Red. There is nothing wrong with these people or their opinions, and there is nothing wrong with sharing them. I do  think there is a tendency to see all interactions and changes in the animal world – Rocky, illness, moves – as crises and dramas needing extraordinary intervention. I hope not, and I do not expect that.

Border collies with sheep do not pine away for their former homes, as Karen Thompson would be the first one to admit. Border collies with sheep out their back doors settle in very quickly. Border collies with sheep, Maria cuddling them, me driving them all over creation in cars and ATV’s, bringing them everywhere, photographing them, taking them for a dozen walks a day and frequent visits to the pasture do not often need to hear verbal explanations about separation or tell me what they are feeling via a communicator (and I respect and appreciate communicators.) I’m going with this game plan: it will be great, I have my own good and tested methods of training dogs like this, learned in blood and the hard way, and I expect it will work. If I have trouble, I will be on the phone to Karen and anybody else for guidance.

I will share the experience either way, honestly and fully.