One of the many things I love about my life with dogs is their ability to surprise, challenge and improve me. Each one comes into my life for a reason, marks a passage of time for me, changes me and teaches me. I have had border collies for more than a decade now, and each one has loved to herd sheep in their own way.

Fate is different. She loves sheep, she loves to be around them, is on fire to get out to them. She just doesn’t like to herd them, and once I finally, through my blindness and obliviousness, realized this a month or so ago, we have been  having the greatest fun out there.

Red does not have fun with sheep, he is  grim and purposeful, he never loosens up out there. Fate is the yin to his yang, she never takes herself seriously Around the sheep she runs, circles, dances, lies down and soaks up life. She has fund wherever she goes, whatever she is doing.

This morning, as Red held the sheep at their feeder, Fate did wide and enthusiastic outruns around the flock, she circled into the barn, down behind the apple tree and back again, in ever wider and more dramatic turns until she had long tongue and i called her out to get some water and rest.

This was an important insight and good decision for me. I think I was putting pressure on her to be something she really isn’t, and we are having a blast jsut being who we are. She watches me closely, obeys instantly. But she just loves the sheep too much to push them around. Red does not love the sheep at all.

I have more fun watching this joyous creature fail to herd the sheep than I usually have watching dogs actually herd them. How strange is that. And I am grateful for Red. He works so that Fate can find joy.