Fate Astonished me today by bonding with Sylvie during one of her regular training sessions at the Mansion. Sylvie is all business when I see her, it’s all about stamps and envelopes (the latest batch of stamps has also vanished, the new envelopes as well.)

Sylvie can get grumpy when her letter writing is interrupted. She wasn’t pleased that I had Fate jump up and step on her envelopes and letters (I didn’t see them)

But then this amazing thing happened, and Fate and Sylvie’s eyes met one another, and they just clicked, I think Sylvie was seeing Fate’s beautiful face for the first time.

They talked for a while, Sylvie told Fate that somebody was either stealing her stamps and envelopes or she was losing them in some mysterious way. She gave me several letters to mail. I don’t know what Fate told her, but she seemed to calm Sylvie down, and the two just communed for awhile.

Border collies really know how to make eye contact. I just loved this scene.

I hadn’t seen it before, but the two are very much alike. Serious workers, very focused and sometimes volatile. Sylvie admired Red from afar, but she never wanted to touch him or get too close.

When we left, she asked me several times when “the Fate dog” was coming back. We’ll be bringing stamps, I said, and envelopes.

“Thank you Jon,” she said, “thank you, Fate.” Fate is in.