For some time now I've wanted a dog — a Border collie to be precise. Recently, after just declaring to my friend that no one ever puts up adverts [advertisements] in shops anymore offering dogs to good homes, I walked into a shop and, lo and behold, saw an advert on the notice board: Border collie free to good home. So I deemed this as synchronistic, or a marvelous piece of cosmic ordering, and duly set about ringing the woman who had placed the advert and then made plans to visit the dog.

In the meantime, our beloved cat passed away, and to say that things felt a bit rushed to clear the space and prepare for a new arrival is a bit of an understatement. However, by now we all had our hearts set on this dog, despite the fact that when I first met her I didn't feel much of a connection, and it's fair to say I had my doubts, especially when I cast a chart for the question, "Would this dog be good for us?" and the answer seemed to be no. But I allowed myself to be carried away by the desire to have a dog and one that appeared in such synchronistic circumstances.

On the night before we were due to collect the dog, the doubts triggered by the chart I had cast were playing on my mind, so I said a prayer, asking that if for any reason the dog would not be a good choice for us, the angels would intervene. The next morning a phone call came from the woman who was fostering the dog, saying that she was very sorry but her sixth sense told her that we shouldn't have the dog because it wasn't a good choice for a home with a five-year-old child, and she just didn't have a good feeling about it. Despite my disappointment, I knew that this was divine intervention, but I was perplexed as to how I'd convinced myself that I wanted this dog and how the universe seemed to be responding by guiding me to the advert when I'd just been talking about wanting a Border collie.