At one time she had no fewer than ten dogs, not consecutively but all at one time, they just kept sequentially joining her household. That fact alone mandated that she could live only out in the country, since municipal bylaws almost universally require that individuals -- not breeders or those providing services -- have no more than three animals in a household.

She lent herself to mentoring dogs that had been abused and rescued, to give the dogs the opportunity to be reformed, to trust people again, and to behave in accordance with civilized norms as it were, before they were considered to be adoptable. A few weren't and that status consigned them to the potential for euthanization. So they stayed with her.

Some were rescue dogs that she took in, after canine rescue groups brought them south from the far north of Canada where they were abandoned and left to fend for themselves. She ended up with two tiny dogs, a Chihuahua and a toy Pomeranian. a Sheltie, a horribly abused Boxer, a number of German shepherd-Husky mixes and others, along with two cats. They were young usually when they came to her, so she had a household of young animals.

As time went on they become older, and as animals with fairly short lifespans one by one they departed. She is left with only two now, a part shepherd and the tiny Chihuahua. Our two little poodles had company on their ravine walk yesterday afternoon, because Sara, the 13-year-old shepherd was with us, and so was our daughter, a long drive from her home, south-west of where we live.

Though her home is slightly south of ours, she's in what's called a snowbelt, so it gets even colder and snowier there than it does here. In the summer, the birds that come around to her property are impressive in their types and sizes. Only there have we ever seen such a number of hummingbirds, now departed, flying south in anticipation of cold weather moving in. Her log home sits on about six acres of her own wooded property.

We'd had a 32C day only several days earlier, but yesterday the temperature failed to nudge over 14C, with a stiff wind, so it was fairly cold; such weather contrasts in the Ottawa area are common, however. We required light jackets for comfort. I'd worked in the garden in the morning, cutting back, cleaning up detritus that tends to assemble, snipping spent flowerheads, that kind of thing and was comfortable in a long sleeved shirt, but in the ravine with its shade, not so.

So Jackie and Jillie had Sara for company. And though she's now a senior dog, Sara enjoyed her long foray through the ravine trails. Our daughter kept her off leash, but close by at all times, wary of the prospect of her wandering off.