They live in the community, but to access the ravine they have to take a short drive over. We've been familiar with them for the past several years, since they brought home two two sibling border collies and became accustomed to taking them to the ravine for outdoor exercise. Their two daughters had long left home to establish homes of their own.

One of the daughters also adopted one of the litter's puppies. She also had two infants of her own and another on the way. She found the care of a demanding, intelligent puppy more than she could cope with on top of her motherly duties to her small children. And when the third was born she was predictably overwhelmed. What on Earth would compel a couple to bring a puppy into such a household is puzzling.

In any event, the puppy was kept continually confined, and its confinement resulted in a lack of socialization and subsequent poor behaviour. This breed is a working dog and highly intelligent, needing structure in their lives and the opportunity for activity; restraining such a dog represents true cruelty, failing to offer it guidance and the care any living creatures deserve is a true dereliction. It would snap at the children who, being young children, take to teasing animals, making the little dog's situation even more miserable for them and for the dog.

Finally the parents convinced their daughter to release the dog to their care, and then they became stewards of three dogs, all of them with different personalities, but the third with obvious imposed-through-neglect character deficiencies. It took dedicated patience and hard work to bring the third sibling to the point where it no longer needed to be leashed and controlled to prevent it from running amok, but they did reach that point after a year.

In early spring, the man, who is fit and very involved in exercising his body had a bad spill when the wheel of his racing bicycle got stuck in a sewer grate. It was an unfortunate accident, one that left him with a fractured collarbone. He needed a lot of attention, a healing protocol, rest and hope before he was able to deal with the excruciating pain he suffered. Prescribed drugs helped kill the pain but he wanted to be off them as soon as possible, so began to grit his teeth and cope with the pain. Gradually his condition improved. He went back to walking the three dogs in the ravine as soon as he could. He keeps them under firm control and they respond well to the sound of his orders. His praise for their obedience bespeaks a mutual fondness.

He insists he is almost ready to take part in bicycling marathons again, due to his improved condition, though he still winces with pain that is never far from his consciousness. Yesterday he informed us that he is scheduled to soon undergo neurosurgery to remove water on his brain. For years he has been silently suffering grim headaches, memory loss, an inability to cope with simple solutions to problems. His family doctor sent him to a neurologist who sent him for an MRI. The technician went so far as to inform him personally that though the results showed water on his brain it was of an amount that wasn't unusual and nothing to be concerned about.

The neurologist felt otherwise, consulting with a neurosurgeon whose reaction was that this was a serious matter requiring a serious response, scheduling him for surgery. What caused his condition? Unknown; he was even informed that he might have been born with the diagnosed condition. But that it had progressed to the point where it might soon threaten his life.