When I was in Ireland last month, we visited Ross Castle in Killarney and there we met -- well, maybe not met since we weren't formally introduced -- a lovely Border Collie who just couldn't get enough of chasing a stick in the lake, or Lough Leane, as it likes to be known as.

In front of the castle, a man tossed the stick and every time the collie came back with it, she cried and barked for it to be thrown again. It was pretty funny, she just wouldn't tire out. So of course I took photos. I didn't have my camera with me that does good action shots but I managed to get a few.

And when I came back from Ireland, I saw that one image had a really good expression, just prime for a composite. But it wasn't shot as my composites are normally shot. She isn't in studio lighting, a gray backdrop or anything like I usually use. She's in a lake with a good expression.

So I didn't even cut her body out. Instead, she became part of my "Lost at Sea" series and I just cut her and some of the water out. And I found a suitably stormy sea, placed her in it, and changed the color of the lake to match the ocean.

And it was glorious. She's wet. None of my other "Lost at Sea" composites have wet dogs. And then I found Lazslo the Vizsla who is also wet from running into the ocean at the beach. He's a smooth-coated dog so he was easy to separate from his background as the background wasn't particularly busy. And because I've received some criticism -- yes, dear readers, criticism! -- because the "Lost at Sea" animals look like they aren't going to be saved. Well, they all are, but since then, I've dropped a helicopter line for Kiwi, my cat, and on this one, I had Zeus come in with a rescue boat AND had a life preserver within reach. So yes, everyone gets saved.

Here is the composite and a few images of the nameless Collie of Ross Castle.