Earlier today I popped down to the local shops with the dog. On the way back, as happens quite often, an elderly couple came up to me, saying what a lovely dog Kane is, and proceeded to make a big fuss of him. Of course, there were no objections to this from either me or, particularly, from the dog.
As usually happens on these occasions, I got chatting to the couple who'd approached us. It transpires that they'd also had a border collie, who they'd loved very much. What I could have done without was a symptom by symptom discussion of the illness that had ended their dog's life at the age of fifteen...
Kane's now fourteen and, I'm pleased to say, so far as we know, he's pretty healthy. Long may he remain so!