Border collies and sheep have an uneasy relationship at best, and Red has been tangling with the sheep all of his life, invariably and until very recently, getting them to do what he wants, or else.

As he has aged and lost his sight and some of his movement, some of his authority has been diminished, but when he’s up to it, he can still freeze a ram in his tracks with a store.

Today, the temperature was way up in the ’90s and the humidity was oppressive, dog and sheep seemed to call a truce. Nobody wanted to run around much, or even get up, including Red.

He came into the pasture, plopped down in a bed of grass, and the sheep didn’t move either. Time for a truce like soldiers sometimes do at the end of long battles.

Red and the sheep sent some secret signal to each other – you don’t bother me, and I won’t bother you.