Or, to be more specific, for Border Collies?!

The correct answer is that I am not. However, in the last three weeks it has seemed as if I am! It is not unusual for us to look after dogs for friends and family and, before we acquired Zeph, we used to be ‘Trusted Housesitters’. I wrote about the experience here: https://fancyingfrance.com/2017/07/26/dogless-in-france/

Our first ‘clients’ were Wilma and Charlie and we have remained good friends with them and their owners.

Wilma and Charlie are from the same litter and have proved to be the perfect guests. I love the photo of them, as pups, in the car.

They are now aged seven and are (mostly) tolerant of Zeph. I think they view him as a young ‘whippersnapper’.

And here they are, with Zeph, on their most recent 10 day visit.

There was a moment, during their stay, when Charlie decided that Zeph’s bed was much more comfortable than his own!

Nevertheless, they did manage to master the knack of synchronised sleeping.

According to one of Zeph’s trainers he has an extremely strong herding instinct! Some collies try to herd cars, children and people, but Zeph just wants to herd other dogs, in particular collies. In this image, he’s managed to ‘herd’ Charlie, Wilma, Echo and Fitz into position. All in a day’s work!

Echo was our next guest. She arrived one day after Wilma and Charlie departed! Echo is a few months younger than Zeph and is one of the mainstays of our unofficial Border Collie Club!

Apart from the fact that I managed to chop off the top of Zeph’s ear (!) I love this photo. It’s not easy to capture synchronised head turning!

During Echo’s stay we went on a Border Collie Club outing to the sea. We visited a very dog friendly beach in W. Sussex which is less than an hour from us. Have you spotted the intruder? Hattie is an honorary member of our unofficial border Collie Club.

All our canine visitors have now departed. I think this last picture of Zeph, taken when we had our collie guests, says it all. I think he’s clearly thinking: Keep your paws off my duck or else…

I had intended to publish this post on Friday, 26th August, to celebrate International Dog Day but best laid plans and all that…