With Conrad Black, due to report to prison March 3, asking the court the delay the start of that sentence, spare a thought for his wife Barbara Amiel.

Now that hubby is heading off to jail, Amiel is coming to terms with the fact that her doggies are in the care of a German house officer, or "houseman" as she calls him. She explains more in her column in Macleans.

"My three dogs are in Toronto, bonded for life in the face of my absence with our 70-year-old German houseman," Amiel writes. "They bark with a distinctly Rhenish sound which even Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz, authority on the language of animals, would have trouble understanding. Werner's kindness to every living creature from frogs to me is taxed by my insistence on hanging a large portrait of Joseph Goebbels by Toronto artist Tony Scherman in our living room. The picture depicts evil brilliantly and I've re-named it after several people in my husband's drama. Werner's late father happened to be the night chauffeur for fellow Rhinelander Reichsminister Doktor Goebbels, and he has a loathing of Nazism supplemented by a pained look whenever I play Wagner.

"Wrenching my dogs (Moffat, Monty and George-Black in honour of Conrad's family) from him is out of the question. I have therefore acquired a new kuvasz puppy who at eight weeks of age will come and live with me. His name is "Jonas," as befits his Hungarian antecedents and my affection for my former husband ... Most sources advise elderly people that dog size is a key issue due to the owner's possible frailty or unsteadiness. I have taken this into consideration and note that my kuvasz will weigh more than I when fully grown. This seems sensible as Conrad is the size of companion I'm used to. Both he and my kuvasz require large amounts of food and the temptation to spoil both with treats is strong."

As Nick Carraway said in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, the rich are different from you and me.