So Gus has charmed Fanny, every morning, he leans forward and gives her a big kiss on the nose. She loves it, comes looking for it first thing when she sees Gus. Donkeys are notoriously wary around dogs, but Gus has worked hard to become friends, and Fanny now loves him back. She comes over and lowers her nose for him every morning.

There was a risk to doing this, I admit it freely, and many people warned me about it and cautioned me against it – all of them were people online who do not know me or Gus or Fanny, I should say. Donkeys can stomp or kill a dog they don’t like. But I can see they have accepted Gus, especially Fanny.

My farmer friends all supported my idea: let them be dogs and they will be dogs, turn them into anxious children and that is what they will be. If he doesn’t get used to them now, chances are he never will, and we bring him out into the pasture every day. Our pasture and animals are a part of our farm and our lives, if Gus can’t participate in that, he is cut off from one of the central parts of our lives.

Maria is supportive, but she doesn’t have the stomach to watch when I let Gus off the leash in the pasture. Do it, she says, but I can’t look.

My camera and I love to look. This is the wonder of animals, I think, and especially dogs, who adapt and react to the life around them, if they are given a chance. This would never have happened if we did not give Gus, an ll-week-old puppy, the chance to figure it out for himself.

And it is a pretty neat thing to see.