The intrepid Fate comes along with me, Maria and Red every morning to do the farm chores and move the sheep around. Still eating some droppings, but less. Fate is nothing if not intrepid, she has quite a will of her own. As she rushed into the pole barn to check out the sheep, she came nose to nose with Chloe, our new pony. Fate screeched to a halt. They both seemed a bit startled by the other, they had seen each other through fences, but this was  a close encounter. Everybody’s ears swiveled forward and there was some earnest sniffing.

Fate gave Chloe a lick or two on the nose, and then Chloe, satisfied, lost interest in her. Fate tends to stand up to things, even things that are 20 times bigger than her. It went well. Grounded dogs know how to handle themselves with farm animals, Fate, like Red, is calm, steady and avoids aggressive eye contact or movements. She’s a great little dog. I think she considered trying to herd Chloe, then thought better of it.