DURING the long drive home from the farm where they’d collected the puppy, Isabel and Leo threw around names. ‘Heathcliff? Darcy?’ she suggested, as the puppy nestled into her lap. ‘What about Craig?’ he grinned. ‘Or Kevin?’ Then they ran out of petrol, at which point they stopped thinking of names and started grumbling about their predicament. After an age, an old bloke in a dusty ute stopped and donated some petrol from a battered jerrycan. Leo proffered his hand as the man went to leave. ‘You’re a lifesaver, ah…?’ ‘Rex,’ the man said. ‘Rex!’ Leo and Isabel said in unison. ‘Perfect!’