To a border collie, eye is almost everything. They have remarkable vision, they can see far to the side of the and behind them, they use their eyes to hypnotize and engage sheep. Red has a powerful eye, and it’s been almost a year since he lost it. We were visiting some friends, and a nearby dog, a German Shepherd, attacked Red and tore his eyelid in an ugly fight. This is a beautiful and normally loving dog that repeatedly attacks other dogs, but not people, but we were caught off guard by it.

Red fought back, but border collies are herders,  not fighters, they nip at the sheep, they don’t tear into them, their grip is not strong. He held his own, but his head got chewed up and bloodied a bit.

We got Red to a vet quickly and he sewed up the eyelid in an emergency surgery. He said if the bite mark had been extended by a quarter of an inch, Red would have lost his right eye, his herding days would probably have been over, although I have seen one-eyed border collies herd sheep.

Red was amazing on the operating table. It was an emergency call, the vet had no anesthesia, and Red lay perfect still while the lid was sewn up, he never moved an inch. The vet was impressed. People love their dogs so much they can hardly bear to see their dark and difficult sides. The dog that bit Red still runs loose and still attacks dogs from time to time. I fear that one of these days he will seriously harm one, if she hasn’t already.

There is still a slight dis-figuration along the eyelid and he needed some additional stitchwork here, but his eye still freezes the sheep in its tracks. This morning, watching me to see when we could go to work – you can see why his eye is effective – I was lucky to be  holding the camera as the sun came through the door.