I often walk in the town cemetery these days, it is quiet and beautiful with paths and slopes and hills and turns, Red, who has almost never been on a leash in his life, walks alongside, close and vigilant, he never is out of sight, never pays attention to other dogs or wanders off. Today, he veered off sharply and vanished behind some headstones, I was surprised. I walked up a bit, rounded the corner and saw the reason. Common Sense Farms, a religious community bordering the cemetery has sheep – Red and I were summoned to help round them up when they escaped a few weeks ago, but I didn’t know they were being kept right next to the cemetery.

Red did know, he smelled or heard or sensed them a long way off, and with a lot of cemetery in between. There was an understandable border collie diversion. The sheep and Red got into a staredown – they learned the last time to do what Red tells them – and Red was a bit surprised and disappointed to get called off. Hey, I said, this is my walk, my time. Be a therapy dog. He was.