There were countless times during their puppyhood when we weren't certain we would survive the experience of sharing our home with two uninhibited, raucous, entitled little black scamps whom our disapproval of their destructive antics seemed not to perturb the least little bit. Poodles, by reputation and through our own experience, are intelligent and capable of picking up clues fairly quickly. These two seemed immune to the lessons we attempted scrupulously to teach them, in hopes of retaining our sanity.

For one thing, it took forever to house-train them. We had no such problems with their predecessors, our miniature poodle Button and our toy poodle Riley, both whose passing as a result of old age and all the chronic ills that accompany it all too soon took them from us, devastating us utterly. We miss them terribly. And we sought to plug that vacuum in our lives by adopting another little fellow. Our plan went astray when we were confronted by the fact that the litter we looked at was comprised of two puppies, a male and female. How to choose and leave one devastated and alone?

So we chose instead to bring them both into our home. And the effect was immediate and mind-boggling. As puppies they were unrestrained in their natural inclination to do anything that appealed to them. And they drove us to distraction. The issue was that whatever one puppy could achieve, two could double. Even while their uninhibited joy of life and inclination to run berserk with one another entertained us and endeared them to us, it also complicated our lives immeasurably through an additional work load.

Now that they're two years old, their behaviour has modified as it should toward adulthood and the more sober actions that maturity inspires, along with the understanding that some consideration had to be given to those living with them, to restrain their impulses which in any event maturity itself would have dampened. Jackie retains some habits that are problematical; one that he chooses to pursue and that is the will to chew just about anything. That can be a nuisance problem.

Another is one not of his making, that he suffers from a chronic condition leading him to have gastrointestinal upsets during which bouts he will not eat because he feels so awful. Mind, those bouts are most often triggered by his having chewed on something he should not. At the present time, the issue is the wild apples in the ravine which at this time of year can be infected by nasty moulds. Last year at this time we had to rush him to the veterinary hospital for immediate treatment to offset the frightening effect on his neurological system of having ingested that mould; his stomach was pumped free of apples and medication used to reverse the effect of the mould.

When I catch him in the act, I scold him and order him to desist, and he does. But obviously there are times when he manages to get in a bite or two during our walk before I realize what he's about, and this happened again a few days ago leading to another bout of illness and refusal to eat. We were immensely relieved this morning when he managed to eat some bits of honeydew and egg yolk after refusing his own kibble, so after going without any food all day yesterday, today's consent to eat a bit of fruit and egg relieves us greatly.

Feeling under the weather doesn't stop Jackie from enjoying his daily walks in the woods, he still rushes off fleet as the wind after squirrels and challenges Jillie to vigorously joyful chases, delighted to be out and about. For her part, Jillie is stolid and unperturbed by anything, never becomes ill as Jackie does, and eats relentlessly, which is why she weighs so much more than slight Jackie.