This poem that is particularly close to my heart, as it was inspired by the life and death of our wonderful dog, Smilie. She lived eighteen years with the instincts of a, shall I put it, spirited shepherd. Smilie sort of adopted our family. She had been on her own in the country in Texas and sauntered up at our place one day. She never left and over the years worked with us as we became, at her loving insistence, better and better parents. Nice. This poem is in memoriam to Smilie.