Yesterday was grooming day for Jack and Jill, not an event they particularly relish, but they did their best to heed my requests for patience and compliance, conditions of behaviour they are not known to embrace. A few struggles against what they must surely interpret as indignities to their persons, and then they more or less settled down to enable me to de-hair them adequately.

First the paws and pads, then their long scrawny little legs, and then attention to their facial hair, snipping steadily away, soft black hair falling everywhere and clinging to everything, them and me and the rug beneath us. I do keep a bag nearby to plunk discarded hair into from time to time, but snipping is very busy work and constant, leaving little time for collecting and plunking, so the rug does begin to grow an unruly mess of black which will eventually, once all the hair-snipping is concluded, in between little clients, be swooped up.

Face done, attention goes to tail, rear end, nether regions and the rest of their restive little bodies until the job is done and they appear presentable. In fact, when their hair grows out, as it does, swiftly and capaciously, they look puppy-like, the volume of hair giving them the appearance of being well-filled out. Jillie certainly qualifies as a well-packed little dog. She and her brother consume the same amount of food daily, and she has put on weight, but he remains lean and muscular.

We don't believe that his spare frame is responsible for his grace in motion and ability to make great leaps and champion-strength runs, but it can't hurt in that direction. It's possible that Jillie's girth keeps her grounded, convinces her she can't leap the way Jackie does.

It's likely I will no longer groom them in the sense of giving them regular haircuts as often during the winter months, to ensure that have adequate winter coverage. Unlike little Riley they don't seem to react to the colder weather by constantly shivering. Which could only be assuaged for Riley by pulling little sweaters over him to ensure he was warm enough and comfortable once September rolled around.

On the other hand, they don't seem to be completely averse to being dressed in light little pullovers under their halters on cold and windy days when we're out in the ravine; temporary measures to make certain they don't react to that puzzling plunge in temperature that seems to us too aggressively early in the season.