Join Miste’s Journey
From a Scottish sheep farm to American hospitals, schools, and stages — meet Miste, the Border Collie with a story to tell.
A heartwarming memoir in Miste’s own voice — full of love, loss, laughter, and the healing power of dogs.
In Sheep to ShowBiz, you will accompany Miste, a smart, plucky, little Border Collie, from an ancient barn on a sheep farm in Perthshire, Scotland, through her despair on the death of her first, beloved mistress to the Midwest of the United States where she learns to love a new family in Missouri and discovers her gift as a therapy dog and commercial model.
Along the way, she shares tales of her dog ancestors, the wisdom of the farm animals, and the joy she found in helping children, patients, and friends.
Origins of the Book
Ann Gafke first met Miste during a vacation trip to Scotland to explore family heritage. Miste’s first mistress was in hospice care and asked Ann to take Miste, still a puppy, when the owner died.
Miste, became not only a beloved family member but also a therapy dog and commercial model.
This memoir is told in Miste’s voice because of how central she became to Ann’s family, and it includes stories Ann collected from her life with dogs and dog training. The stories are told to Miste by the Wise Old Goat on the farm in Scotland, and Rayne, the German Shepherd Dog historian in Missouri.
More About the Author
Ann Gafke has spent more than 60 years training dogs and guiding their humans through classes, therapy work, and joyful partnerships. Many of the stories come from these training relationships.
The stories also come from her dog therapy service, her German Shepherd Dog and Border Collie breeding, her work as a volunteer in dog care for the 4H program, and her storytelling learned from a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and her experience as Kansas City, Missouri’s first, on-air television newswoman.
After three years, she moved from television news to dog training when she decided to be a stay-at-home mom to raise their children feeling she would do a better job of that someone else might.
Her training began as an informal service in the yard of Air Force Base housing where she and her husband, Roger, lived. Training became more organized when they moved to Columbia, Missouri, in the late 60s. It was first delivered on parking lots in downtown Columbia and then in their own training building in the early 90s.
A Sad Beginning
Ann & Miste – A Bond
Miste to the Rescue
Miste’s Therapy Service
Miste’s Heritage
Stories they told Miste
The dog stories are drawn from Ann Gafke’s 60-year experience of dog training and dog therapy work.
- Relive the how her family rescued their German Shepherd that became trapped in a bear trap during a blizzard, how the dog was stolen only to find his way home across miles of Michigan woodland. (Chapters 6 & 8)
- Admire the herding instinct of Miste’s father to round up the sheep and get them to the barn without formal training, how he also kept home burglars at bay until authorities arrived. (Chapter 1)
- Appreciate how Ann’s German Shepherd Dog, King, inserted himself in situations that threatened Ann. (Chapter 8)
- Admire the therapy dogs that awoke a comatose teen, broke the depression of a suicide patient, got a reluctant boy from his wheelchair to a foot race, caused a non-verbal youth to burst into a “No!” when another boy tried to take therapy dog he was working with. There’s more throughout the book and Chapter 20.
Star in TV commercials
A walk in the park that wasn’t
Miste – Audience Favorite
