Conference over yesterday afternoon, our younger son is preparing to fly back to Vancouver this afternoon. Next year's in Newfoundland. Last year's took place in the Yukon. Meanwhile, he's gone out for a ski run in the ravine, much as he did last night. It was he who observed, quite correctly, that those two little trouble-seekers physically resemble Button, but their movements are like Riley's, and he is quite right.

That isn't one puppy, it's two, together.

They are so accustomed to being together, so focused on one another, so involved with gamboling, challenging, tossing and tumbling with one another to imagine them separated seems like an offence against nature.

Jill's white chest-blaze

We can readily tell them apart, because Jill has a white blaze on her chest, and Jack has the merest bit of barely discernible white on his chest. Jill is more fully-packed, closer to four pounds, to Jack's more slender appearance and slighter weight. Jill will settle down more readily than Jack, but she's as much of a devil as he is for the most part.

At three months of age, their bladders are more mature than when they were younger, so we're having great success in communicating to them that the outdoors is where they do their business. Out in the snow it's a signal for them to romp and tussle, leap into the deepest parts of the snowbanks, and discover bits of gnarly plant matter presenting as excellent chewing matter.

My husband has already had to block off entry to the underside of the large shed by placing boards over the gap, but that doesn't stop them from making the effort to gain entry, regardless.

They've been sleeping right through the night without a murmur of unhappiness for their first two nights with us. Out they come at 7:30 for their first outdoor foray of the day and their performances are excellent. The family room is scattered with their toys. They can enter the enclosure we set up for them for those times when we're not around to watch them, and they do so freely, though they haven't yet been confined to the area.

They're a restless whirr of action

No problem getting them to eat their puppy kibble, they simply devour it for their three-times-daily schedule. In short, they're perfection personified. They know their names and come running immediately they're called. They are squirmy-affectionate and constantly underfoot.

And they are a source of constant entertainment and humour, honouring us as witness to the wonders of new life.