"Dogs never miss a thing! I remember dear Lady, who we lost a while back. She had this uncanny capacity to sense when you were on top of the world or a bit under the weather and her mood in your presence would readjust accordingly. I still miss her absence from my life deeply as she was was of the few creatures who truly understood my idiosyncrasies.
Whenever I was thinking things out she would always give me her puzzled look of uncertainty and as a reassurance, I would simply hold her head tenderly, look into her searching eyes and say something like, 'Look not into my eyes too deeply for I am presently thinking and I need to work things out. I don't want to worry you; merely protect you until I am no longer able to.'
I particularly miss her first thing on a morning as seeing her made me instantly know that we were both pleased to be alive and up and about. Every day that Sheila and I sat across from the table on our computers, Sheila doing her stars and me my writing of another novel, she would nuzzle us in turn (I mean Lady not Sheila), but as soon as I put a piece of food to my mouth, her total affection would be turned towards me, or was it her attention?
I miss you, Lady. I am so pleased I have your mistress, Sheila, to be there for me now that you aren't." William Forde: April 15th, 2017.