Miss Chief and Master Sneeze are doing as well as can be expected. She named for her indefatigable mischievous nature and her take-charge impudence, and he for the misfortune that befell him when he became ill and is even now still recovering from a miserable cold, causing him to sneeze often showering the atmosphere about him.

We are not yet prepared to have them enrolled in the canine Mensa school of accomplished intelligence but we're working diligently on it.

They have effortlessly mastered the art of cuisine appreciation. They have taste-tested asparagus, persimmon, banana, apple, pear, strawberry, scrambled egg, a variety of cheeses, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, carrots, and found them all avariciously to their taste. Ricotta and yogurt have become a mainstay of their diet, as has chicken soup. Their motto is, 'bring it on!' Which has not, unfortunately, yet weaned them from their habit of foraging for edibles, mistaking inedible non-food byproducts as tasty diet additions.

We are working on their communications skills in understanding language. They do, more or less recognize the pleas emanating from their human companions to pleeeez, pleeez pee already, and alternately, dontcha wanna poo now? Outside, in preference to our home interior. We do from time to time, make any number of excuses for their 'accidents' given the continuing presence of raging winter storming through our backyard where ice and snow remain unrelentingly in presence, and icy winds are of the temperament to blast away our hopes for spring.

And where, unfortunately, as the snow does melt from time to time, plant detritus is increasingly revealed, enticing our two little marauders to leap upon them faster than we can prevent their little jaws fastening on detritus, to complement their diets. So yes, their nutritional knowledge still needs some remedial work.

Their social studies are a work in progress, as we meander in the frozen ravine in our daily rambles and come across other canine companions whom our two introduce themselves to. Gaining the knowledge that some dogs whom we encounter are better left undisturbed and given wide berth in recognition of their cranky disposition that the presence of puppies brings to the surface, while others are amenable to being used as punching bags of enthusiasm by small puppies new to the world eager to make their acquaintance.

As for their alphabet, and Internet-based grounding in the world of higher thought, they are being introduced daily to various modes of intelligence-gathering, from the inexhaustible printed word to the electronic print striving to overtake it -- gaining as well audible clues to the world into which they have arrived and in which they are invested in achieving a working degree of understanding.