Manila stood the other side

There is a fence in the middle of the paddock that is not in the middle at all. It just feels like it, because Manila stands on the other side of it and will not be fetched.

She is close enough to hear the trough. Close enough to see Canberra's line. Close enough that Denver, who is built for the high paddock, keeps looking at her as if she has wandered one paddock too far, which she has not. She lives there. That is her side.

The bull announced that there was only one paddock, a tremendous paddock, the best paddock, and Manila had always been in it. Manila chewed. She was not in it. She was next to it.

Spike went at the fence. Faster is still his plan. He found a gap that was not a gap, it was two posts and a wish, and he tried to pour himself through it. A kelpie can pour through a lot of things. This fence was not one of them.

He barked. He stared. He ran the length of the wire and came back with the same news: Manila was still Manila, and the other side was still the other side.

Manila blinked at him the way a neighbour blinks at a dog who has mistaken their yard for an invitation.

Suzy did not pour. Suzy walked the fence until it stopped being a fence and became a gate. There is always a gate. It is never where Spike is looking.

She sat in it. Not through it. In it. The way you sit when you have decided the cow will use the gap that is actually a gap, in a minute, when she is ready, which is not the same minute as the bull's minute.

The bull bellowed that the gate was unnecessary. Historic paddocks do not need gates. Manila took a step. Not into the herd. Just toward Suzy, which is how a neighbour says she heard you.

Spike escorted the last of that step as if he had invented fences. Canberra kept the line on this side. London queued behind it, in case a queue was required. Beijing pondered the wire.

Manila did not join the trough. She did not join the line. She stood where she stands, which is just the other side, which is still the farm.

Spike shook the dust off and looked for a cow on this side of the wire. Suzy stayed in the gate a moment longer, because that is where the next neighbour would be.

Some cows are in the paddock. Some cows are the paddock next door.