Jackie Thorne is a friend, a poet, and a student in my writing class, and a true animal lover. She came over by mistake this morning, thinking there was a class, but it had been cancelled.

Red was sitting near the gate. Red is a loving dog, but also a very serious dog, especially when he is in sight of the sheep. I have never seen him roll over for anyone before, he is very affectionate, but not too demonstrative. He just melted away when Jackie knelt down to say hello, he went right over on his back to show his belly, almost always a compliment when any animal does it.

For a few minutes, he was in bliss. Then he got up and went over to the gate to watch the sheep. This is the first and only photo ever of Red rolling over to get his belly scratched.

Jackie was disappointed to miss the class, so we took her out to lunch.