My border collie, Airlie. I adopted her at the age of two, and it's been a battle of alphas ever since. Her great joy in life is sheepherding. One way to make one a believer in instinctual behavior is to watch how this dog (and any border collie) becomes transformed and transfixed when she sees sheep -- or pretty much any group of things that seems to need herding. Most of my photos of Airlie are taken when she has her eye on sheep; look at that gaze and you understand how these dogs control sheep with their eyes alone. Most of the best photos are when she sees that I'm taking a picture of her. She's not a natural model; she knows that the camera is about to flash in her face, and she is trying to figure out how to eat it.

Airlie had to be put to sleep on 10 February 2006. She had canine lymphoma and had reached the stage where she would have been in pain and distress -- something I promised I'd never let happen. I'll miss her terribly.