And there she is, the lovely Bess up there on the tops in snow on the 10th November. You can see how popular she is if you follow the link text to a Facebook page edited by her ‘person’, an equally wonderful person. (My mother always talked to dogs by saying something like ‘what a lovely person’!) Anyway dear Bess, and all who know her and Rachael, were is a bit of a concerned state following news that Bess had ‘a lump’. Turned out to be a consequence of something that happened during her routine procedure to be spayed. Not go into the details enough to say Bess has nothing life threatening and now sports a fast healing scare on her belly. (Cousin Jess in the US, no stress please. All is well, your vet hat can remain happy on your head.)

The other day there was a bit of a gathering in the place where I am staying at the moment. There is always a space for Bess, and a bowl of water for refreshments too. We had a few quiet moments together and, unusual for her with relative strangers, rolled over to reveal her wound patch. Just a small window of opportunity to hold the palm of my hand over the wound to ‘bless’ it. We are taught in our tradition to do this. Bit of love offered to the lovely Bess and also to seal up the hole created my the surgery. Similar to making sure the door is closed and locked when you leave a building, only this works on a subtle (spiritual) level.

Yep. Bess is best. Collie dogs are very loyal and Bess is no exception joined as she is to Rachael.