Maria named her Dotty. Every morning now, Red goes up the hill and looks for her. On Monday, he veered away from the flock to go up the hill, and I let him, watched him to see what was up. Rose taught me to listen to border collies. One of the oldest of the old sheep, No. 170 – that was her number –  has been struggling to keep up with even the older flock. She has gotten lost, struggled to get up, been left behind.

She was actually hiding behind Red so she wouldn’t have to run with the others. I was beginning to see she was heading for trouble. Either she’d fall down up the hill and hurt herself or wander off, even get picked off by a coyote. She loves people – was eating out of Maria’s hand – but she seemed a bit confused, dotty, thought Maria. Thus her name. So we adopted her this morning, brought her into the barn with Maria’s wool sheep, and we’ll keep her. She was not able to fend for herself and Red kept finding her struggling through the brush and falling behind. So she is ours now, Dotty. We put a halter on her and Red escorted her away from the other sheep, and through the barn.

Below, Red escorts her the rest of the way to her new home in the pole barn. She likes Simon.