Given the opportunity, if inter-species communication was effortless and clearly communicable, Lily would no doubt wax poetically enthusiastic about her summer holidays. We know, though she herself hasn't informed us, that she spent six ecstatic weeks on a nearby farm, with people who enjoy her company, and who themselves have a companion dog similar to Lily. In size, that is, not necessarily in appearance, for Lily is a pure-white thoroughbred Shepherd. There on the farm she was free to roam at will, to play endlessly with her canine companion, with not a moment left in the day to pine in the absence of her own human companions.

But she was equally enthusiastic, if somewhat puzzled, though she has been through this routine before, when her humans came along finally to pick her up and take her back home again with them. And she was delighted to be reunited with a routine familiar to her, which in no way diminishes her appetite for alternate experiences, like living temporarily on a farm with its vast acreage, among strange creatures familiar to her only vaguely from her previous stays.

She is a patient dog, one who tolerates the impertinences of smaller dogs with their yappy presence, and in particular small puppies even more impudent and clamorous than most nuisance dogs. So she stands around and waits, allowing two black puppies with the absurd names of Jackie and Jilly to romp about her, trying to draw her into competition over who could conceivably be most obnoxious. A classification that doesn't include Lily.

She stood around waiting until her human companion had his fill of describing his own summer vacation, a river cruise in the rivers close to the North Atlantic, a trip that was delightfully full of treats and surprises as they stopped in various eastern European cities renowned for their medieval architecture. A trip that necessitated that Lily too be accommodated, just not on the river cruise, although without a doubt the other 160 passengers on the ship would have been delighted to make her acquaintance.