Sabi, a black Labrador military working dog with the Australian forces, was recently found 14 months after being declared “missing in action” in Afghanistan. (She’d been separated from her human comrades during an ambush.)

First Muffy – the mongrel who got home from Melbourne after nine years and a journey of hundreds of miles – and now this. There seems to be something special about Australian dogs.

Sabi’s homecoming began when an American soldier saw her with an Afghan man and discovered she understood English commands. We’ve learned recently that dogs can understand up to 250 words, but this shows that they can also remember words after months of not hearing them. Probably, also, Sabi had to learn some new commands while living in her temporary Afghan home. Maybe she wasn’t up to the limit of her vocabulary when she got lost, or maybe she forgot some English words to make room for new ones. Either way, she can now be called bilingual.

Dogs who accompany the troops go through difficult and sometimes tragic experiences, as they search out bombs, drugs, and people. As I learned from this Department of Defense article, dogs can suffer from combat stress. The weather can be rough on them, just as it can on humans. However, once they get used to it, many dogs seem to enjoy deployments. Maybe, as a kennel master in the article says, it’s because in a war zone they get to live in their handlers’ rooms instead of being put in kennels. Everyone knows how important companionship and a sense of belonging are to dogs.

The dogs are there because humans have learned how capable they are – and the story of Sabi shows they may be capable of even more.

A recent article in Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports that a new pet craze is hitting the land down under. Before you read any further, I need to point out that I am not making this up.  I’m reporting what I read for your edification.  This new pet that has Australians all a twitter sells for up to $100 for a breeding pair.  The cuddly, lovable pet I’m referring to is none other than… wait for it… the giant burrowing cockroach!

Seriously.  The giant burrowing cockroach.  Putting the word ‘giant’ and ‘cockroach’ together in the same sentence would be enough to give my lovely wife a seizure, but in Australia they are paying money for the privilege of bringing the little beasties into their homes.

Sydney University unveiled the delightful Heathcliff the Giant Burrowing Cockroach to the world yesterday.  He’s more than nine centimeters long from the tip of his grotesque antenna to the end of his disgusting little hind legs.  Being American, I have no idea how long nine centimeters is, but it sounds like it’s a big bug.

Heathcliff (I can’t believe they name bugs in the land of the kangaroo) was a hit at the university’s annual open house day.  Visitors could see not only the slimy little varmint close up, but they also took turns trying to guess how much he weighs (35 grams, apparently).  Those Aussies sure know how to have a good time.  Maybe next year they can get together to look at a pile of dingo dung and try to guess what he had for dinner.

I kid, I kid.  I love Australians.  It’s the creepy, disease-carrying giant bugs that I’m not so crazy about.