Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Early in the New Year of 1956, I travelled to Southern Iraq. By then it had crossed my mind that I should like to keep an otter instead of a dog, and that Camusfearna, ringed by water a stone’s throw from its door, would be an eminently suitable spot for this experiment.

1. When did the narrator decide to keep an otter instead of a dog as a pet?
2. Why is Camusfearna suitable for keeping an otter?
3. What does the expression ‘a stone’s throw’ here mean?