At last, another snowfall, to cover up the diminishing snowpack that was beginning to look rather dispirited. Fresh snow for Jack and Jill to riot about in. The day before we had a nice long ravine walk with them. The first one-third of the walk is difficult, but then they begin to get the idea and start behaving nicely enough. Jill is more prepared to accept the leash than Jack, he needs more work than she does.

On Tuesday we'd gone off to Byward Market for a shopping trip, and had the opportunity to use the carry bags for the second time. They're just what we had wanted, comfortable for them and for us. At the magazine shop the Somali cashier looked a little uncomfortable at the presence of dogs, and perhaps puzzled that a couple had bags slung over their shoulders with quiet, well-behaved puppies on board. And they were well-behaved; the only time that they tend to be.

In the car on the way driving to the market they thought their place should be at the front of the car, in my lap, but I have other ideas. We've got a bed for them on the back seat, and that's where they're supposed to become accustomed to staying during our drives. Jack accommodated himself to the idea well enough but Jill continuously tried to jump into my lap, and I had to remonstrate with her, returning her to the back repeatedly.

They continue to go off on wild jags of wresting-in-motion, like a small cloud of energy drifting along on the floor, wildly manic like a pair of apprentice black devils. When they're tussling like that on the tile of the kitchen floor they almost seem to melt into the floor, given their colouration and that of the tiles.

I did find the opportunity and the time aside from the usual housekeeping, complicated by their presence to bake a batch of coconut-pecan cookies yesterday. And today, we decided would be an appropriate day for a birthday cake, a few days ahead of schedule, but the oncoming week-end when we splurge on calories seems more fitting in a sense than mid-week.