Maria said Fate was on a rampage Wednesday, running into the woods, demolishing flowers in pots, knocking candles off of desk tops, dumping in my office while I was away (she was housebroken from the first). We cracked down today – lots of exercise, obedience training, ball-throwing, sheepherding. Of course, no border collie would consider any of this cracking down. She behaved beautifully in Maria’s studio, herding the sheep well, behaved in the house, and when I told her I was upset to hear of this, she gave me a great Fate look. What are talking about?

It is a great thing to never get angry at a dog, you will accomplish so much more with love and clarity and understanding. In Brooklyn, I met a woman who told me a dozen times how abused her dog was, how afraid, how much he had suffered. Let it go, I wanted to say, he doesn’t need for you to make excuses for him, to apologize for him. Imagine him to be healthy and healed, and he will be. I wondered why she was telling me that he was abused, or why she had such a need to say it. The dog doesn’t look at himself that way, doesn’t even know what the word means.

I don’t know why Fate had such a bad day, yesterday, or why she had such a good one today. Maria and I accept that we have a very active, strong, instinctual animal and it is our challenge to make sense of it. We will. In the meantime, I can’t look at this dog without smiling or laughing. I can’t even pretend to be mad at her.