Story Overview

The story centres around a collie who lived with a family in a tenement building in a deprived area of a small rural town called Brentwood. The collie becomes overlooked within her human family and ultimately finds herself on the streets forced to fend for herself. She is picked up by the dog catchers and placed in an animal shelter where she waits for her human family to collect her but in vain.

Adoption and Family Healing

She eventually catches the eye of a retired nurse seeking a dog companion and is adopted by her. Her new found family has encountered grief through the premature and tragic death of two members of their family through a drink driving accident. The dog becomes a source of healing and comfort to the various members of the family including Kevin Beth's ten year old great nephew, a hyperactive but socially inadequate youngster whose life the dog saves and the bond between boy and dog becomes inseparable.

Role in Family and Community

The dog has a part to play in all the lives of this family where hospital life and farm life play a great part, where hurt and woundedness is healed, and where faith turns tragedy into triumph. Beth's voluntary work in the hospital, where she trained, involves her faithful collie in serving in the cancer ward as a "working" dog, bringing charm and delight to severely ill children. Beth also comes under the magical spell of her four-legged friend when she finds love in her later years.