I asked her if they would get bored swimming around their tiny bowl, but she claims they can only remember things for three seconds.

It takes about four seconds to swim around the bowl so life can’t be too bad.

He was the first dog we had owned since Juliet and I had children. The big kids liked him and the twins grew up with him.

We wanted to take Snowy with us to Western Australia, but the travel arrangements were prohibitive and the heat over there was worrying for a fluffy animal.

That’s why we were so glad my former work colleague Sally and her mum Joan agreed to take Snowy and give him a new life.

Snowy loved Porepunkah. He was fairly lazy.

Whenever we took him for a walk with the twins he used to lay down when he got tired and insist on a ride back in the pram.

On hot days we used to throw him into the river. He’d complain initially, and then swim like it was the best thing he’d ever done.

Snowy was house trained. If he wanted to go outside, he just nudged the back screen door and went out.

He loved sleeping on a deflating air mattress on the back verandah.

Once, he escaped and we thought we’d lost him, but he was recovered.

According to Sally, who looks after him now: “He loves the country life – rolls in the occasional meadow cakes – comes in smelling none too sweet! And he enjoys being with Joan and I when we get out into the garden.”

The top photo shows Snowy as a pup, when we took him to Chinaman’s Hole for a swim. The bottom photo shows him recently.

Originally we thought they belonged to the people next door. Great, our kids can play with kittens, minus any responsibility.

Wrong.

The kittens are both black. We’ve seen the mother a few times, which we assumed wrongly was next door’s cat.

We have given the kittens milk on the front porch a few times. Now they are always there and the mother has never returned.

I think she lives somewhere in the area and dumped the kittens here, thinking it would be a good home after we gave them some milk.

Tonight we fed them a left-over sausage and gave them a blanket. The little things are still purring, but must be cold. It was probably the first meat they have eaten.

But we don’t want the responsibility and we certainly don’t want cats that will one day have kittens.

The dilemma is do we pay to have them fixed or do we hand them in to the ranger?

I prefer cats to dogs, but don’t really want two of them.

I first encountered this peculiar behavior at Kalgoorlie when I used to take morning strolls at the back of the golf course.

I was enjoying my solitude one day when suddenly these yapping poodles came charging towards me with their owner trailing behind in a car.

This strange habit seems even more common in Mount Gambier.

We have a large vacant block of several acres opposite our house near the Uniting Church tennis courts. It’s a great place to let Sooty run free off the leash.

Except nearly every time I take her there someone else is roaming their large dog while they cruise in a four-wheel drive. How bizarre.

The drivers aren’t frail elderly people who can’t walk.

Part of the pleasure of owning a dog is to take it for walks and get some exercise yourself.

The vet made her wear a lampshade around her neck to stop her from licking her wound and getting it infected. She has to keep that on until next Friday.

The poor pup didn’t know what was going on; she moaned and whimpered a lot yesterday.

She was much better today, but still restricted in movement. She has started jumping again, stretching and climbing the stairs.

Hopefully she will sleep better tonight.

The label on the lampshade says “Buster”.

We put chicken wire over the gate to stop her sneaking under it. The rest of the back yard is fully enclosed, or so we thought.

The first time she got out was a Sunday I took the twins to Valley Lake. Sooty was on the front verandah when we returned.

Today, Juliet had a phone call from the council to say Sooty had been found wandering.

It seems she got out while Juliet was shopping in town and headed towards the IGA supermarket. That’s a little strange, because it’s the opposite way we go for walks and Sooty has a good sense of direction for a female.

Once at the supermarket she followed a timber worker down the road towards the sawmill. He took her into the mill office and they phoned the council.

Because she is registered, they called us and Juliet was able to pick her up.

We investigated the yard and it seems Sooty dug a hole under a fence. I don’t know how we’re going to keep her in. Electric fence maybe?

I bought the kids a mini trampoline today from a discount store, marked down from $50 to $25.

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She was very well behaved while visiting the hairdresser and devoured her doggy treat afterwards.

She looks skinnier than I expected, which suggests that we aren’t feeding her too much. She doesn’t want more food, so I guess she’s healthy.

Next job on the list is to have her fixed.

Her favourite things in life are to go for walks and have her tummy rubbed. She’s pretty cute whether a fluff ball or shaved.

Visit this post to see Maggie as a baby with Snowy, our former dog, also a Maltese-Schitzu cross.

We didn’t think Snowy would enjoy the heat in Kalgoorlie and weren’t sure how to transport him there, so gave him away to a loving home.

The way Princess is being doted on so far we expect the kids will have a lot of fun with her and the puppy will have fun too.