AustLit

'This book began life as The Golden Retriever but the author, on advice, changed the title to The Enchanted Urn. It's a children's fantasy involving a stolen urn, a golden retriever (incarnation of the hero's great, great grandfather who's trying to recover the urn), a family ghost, a mysterious magician, assorted animals who talk, and three thieves.

'Tim Barnett lives with his autocratic mother, his gentle, demented grandfather (Gramps) and his vague, preoccupied father. Tim has an eccentric aunt who, along with Gramps, informs him that a recurrent nightmare he's been suffering is a window into his family's past. Tim finds himself helping recover the stolen urn in order to release Colonel Septimus Barnett from the 'cycle of rebirth' ensnaring him. If Tim is successful, his great, great grandparents will be reunited for all eternity.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.