Well, that was different. In our ravine walk yesterday we came across people and their dogs we'd never seen before, obviously not regular walkers. One of the dogs was six months old, the tubbiest, short-legged but extremely large golden retriever we've ever seen; likely a cross and not a very serendipitous one, given the results. But it was a puppy despite its size, and its rambunctious curiosity and lack of awareness of its size and strength mitigated against our two pint-sized puppies playing with it. Besides which, at the very same time, same junction, appeared a youngish man with a German wire-haired pointer with questionable social skills.

The pointer barked threateningly, its stance signalling its dislike for what it saw before it. This was not a neutered male, and it required being restrained in our near presence, seemingly prepared to lunge. It appeared obvious that this was a dog kept primarily for hunting. Its owner had the usual sneering attitude that certain dog-owning demographics have toward small dogs, and his patronizing comments assumed we were two dodderers just discovering the ravine as a potentially pleasant place to take our two little wretches. Not a nice encounter.

But it was a gloriously beautiful day, the landscape to be fully appreciated, thick with a blanket of snow, the sun doing its best to forge its way through a light cloud cover, the winds abated and the temperature soaring to minus-7C, enabling us to go out for a long woodland ramble for the first time in almost a week of bone-chilling cold and blasting winds.

It's also given us a break in allowing Jackie and Jillie to enjoy being in the backyard, taking their time to romp about a bit and also perform their bodily functions on cue. Their precocious attention to everything around them, the changing scenes they encounter, the occasional person other than ourselves they come across and their corresponding interest, points to their youthful awareness and attempts to place things in some kind of perspective.

Previous to our experience with them, it was somewhat different with Button and Riley both of whom were not ravenous consumers of everything that came across their path. They were both picky eaters as puppies and nor when they matured were they besotted with their food, although additions like plain cooked chicken, cheese, chicken soup, scrambled egg and vegetables did serve to whet their appetites.

With these two little rascals, their raging appetite never rests. To begin with, their serving portions at mealtime are larger than Button's and Riley's ever were, and even after eating they aren't satiated. They look for more things to munch on, craving chewing options at this stage in their puppy-teeth evolution to mature teeth.

When are out in the ravine, they keep their sights on what's tantalizing before them on the trail, leaping on anything that resembles an opportunity to chew; the only things they pass by are pine needles and bits of evergreen that have fallen. We're constantly on the alert to ensure they don't pick up garbage. In the house it's little different, they nose about continually in the kitchen hoping to pick up stray bits of food on the floor. When I'm chopping vegetables they become insistent that something is due them.

Never, ever a dull moment. Although we hugely appreciate their antic puppy performances, we equally appreciate it when they're temporarily in rest-mode, quiet and still and comfortable. And then, so are we.