The woman so adored by Muse

"In less than a year, she'd converted someone who'd never had more than a superficial relationship with a dog into a card-carrying Border collie mom. They'd become inseparable. Muse had somehow escalated occasional weekend or evening visits to the office into a full-time job. She greeted patients by thumping her tail on the floor. She sidled up to those who invited her to approach. She patrolled the lounge and garden to keep count of her friends, some of whom had noticed that she seemed to understand a bit of signing too. But her primary task was to keep an eye on her boss from her blanket in the corner of the consulting room. The white from her muzzle and forehead had started encroaching into her eyebrows at about the time she met Maxie. They were now little patches of hoary speckles that took turns lifting and dropping as Maxie went about her business."