Reading of the unveiling of a memorial to a sheep-dog
that stayed with a shepherd who lost his life in a remote place reminded me of a letter I had from a friend recently telling of a sheep-dog that saved the life of a child in Culdaff in Ireland some thirty years ago. 'Wearing only her nightdress in frosty November weather, she set out on a Monday morn- ing,' says my friend, 'and was found on Thursday evening by a sheep-dog. She was on a slope of Slieve Snaght not far from Buncrana, sunk to the neck in a bog hole. The dog's owner rescued her. Next day her total damage was a cold in the head and sore feet. Multitudes of searchers found plenty of footprints but never the child.' I am never surprised when 1 hear shepherds talking to their dogs as though crediting them with human intelligence, for anyone who has had anything to do with sheep-dogs knows their uncanny ability to under- stand what is said to them. The description 'almost human' is often no great compliment to them.
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