We have a new dog, a black kelpie cross called Lucia. We hunted around the RSPCA for months trying to find the right doggy to be a friend to Digger and there she was, all bones and legs and soft brown eyes. She’d been found wandering through the bush with no identification and seemed to answer to Pup. It was the pound who called her Lucia. We call her Luche, or Pooch. Whoever had her before missed out big time: she is a beautiful animal with a gentle, eager-to-please disposition.

But we were on a walk yesterday, after work as the sun was setting, and Lucia turned around to us so that we’d throw the ball for her. The sun caught her eyes and turned them reflective green. She was this black wolf with starry emerald eyes and if you didn’t know what she was like in real life, you would have thought that the demons were loose in Mandurang…