Yesterday, when we were done with sheepherding, Fate walked with me to the gate. She looked over and saw Maria and Chloe walking in the pasture, a new ritual of the morning. Maria and Chloe are working it out. Fate rushed over and a new ritual was born – woman, horse and dog out taking their morning walk.
Today, as we closed up the herding pasture, Fate took off to look for Maria and Chloe. She ran over to Chloe and the two of them touched noses, and then walked together all around the pasture. A rich new scene for the changing landscape, another ritual born on the farm.
In the summer, we have a big unheated plastic bucket for the animals, it is almost always kept full and fresh. At the edge of the other pasture, we keep a low plastic kid’s pool for her to wallow in to cool off, border collies blood runs pretty hot after working, especially in the sun. When Fate is done with her sheep herding, she often stops at the bucket for a drink, and being an enthusiastic and impulsive creature, she sometimes sticks her head in, she blows bubbles and gets cool.
Yesterday, when I was not looking, she dove into the tank head first – a crazy thing, but a border collie puppy thing, a Fate thing. Her head and shoulders were way down in the water, her butt sticking out. And when I turned the corner, I saw that she was trapped there, she couldn’t get out, she was struggling to keep her head up, fighting for breath.
I came over quickly and pulled her out, but I also saw that if someone hadn’t been there, she might have drowned. I don’t think there was any way she could have gotten herself out of the tub, her front paws, head and shoulders were down so low, her rear legs sticking out. I dropped the camera – a first for me – and ran over.
When Fate is in the herding zone, she is not always rational or focused. This is one of those things that Red would never do in a million years, and it reminded me once again that life can happen at anytime, we can never be so vigilant or alert that we can keep life at bay at all times, surely not on a farm in the country.
Imagine, I thought, if I had paused to work with Red, or take some photos – this often happens – or shovel out the barn or talk to Maria. Could Fate have drowned? I suppose so. That is not a blog post I ever want to write, or a scene I ever want to see. There are several low tubs of water, Fate could have gone to any one of them, but I think she liked the idea of diving in, she was probably very warm. Border collie puppies often put their instincts ahead of their allegedly highly developed brains.
Border collie people love those stories about how many words their dogs can understand, I think it’s up to 800 now in the annual count but why is it, I wonder, if they are so smart, that they do not understand that diesel trucks are not sheep and cannot be herded? Or that they can’t dive headfirst into big tubs of water with no purchase to get out? Or run into stone walls trying to get ahead of the sheep? Or lie down in front of charging horses? You don’t hear people bragging about that.
I imagine I will get quite a few ideas and recommendations for keeping Fate out of the water and away from the happenings of life. I am not likely to consider any of them. Life happens and I will not surrender to the conceit that we can keep all of it at bay. I cannot count the times Rose nearly killed herself chasing after coyotes, running into barn walls, diving under barbed wire, battling rams.
Maria and I will keep an eye on Fate when we come out of that side of the pasture and I will also hope that she learns the words “common sense” and “memory” as she grows up.
On the windowsill, a fiber fairy has put a Dahlia in a small jar, how beautiful to see it. Every morning, a fresh flower on my windowsill, how lucky am I.
