Fate surprises me every day at the Mansion. Today was a big test, I went to do my weekly story reading to the residents.

It was brutally hot outside, and warm in the building, many of the residents were resident or out to see their doctors. The elderly feel the heat in a particular way, their systems struggle to stay even. Days like this are a time for them to be careful and rest.

About a dozen residents were in the dining room when I arrived, and I decided to do the reading there. At first, Fate was restless, she still isn’t quite sure what to do, and she doesn’t have Red’s gift for entering the spirit of a place right away.

Still, she was quite wonderful. She is figuring out what the work is. She went from resident to resident seeing who wanted some attention, she is figuring out who to visit and who not to visit.

She is full of love, it is clearly her focus and calling and work. She loves the Mansion, her tail is going before she gets into the door, and she is happy to see anyone who wants to see her.

At the doorway, she did her Fate thing for Brittany, an aide, on the left, and Jean, a resident, on the right. Fate has a way of swooning into people that they live, she brightened and uplifted a room full of very quiet and somewhat sluggish people.

She just offered her head to Jean, who fell in love with her.

There were a lot of nodding heads as I read today. Fate found a table to crawl under near Ruth and Wayne and went to sleep. She was a perfect dog, she started to challenge Summer, the Mansion cat outside, Summer didn’t move, and Fate barked.

No, I said, not here. You can’t be a regular dog here. And she stopped and walk right past the cat.

Fate was great, she started to jump up on Wayne in his wheelchair, I clucked my tongue at her, and she stopped. She didn’t do it again. The residents are wild about here, she shows them so much affection, they return the love.