Never forget, we did it all for Rosie. (And a little for us.)

Yes, the little guy pounces on her constantly and sometimes bites her ear and tries to steal her toys and is a general pain in the butt. But we got Angus because we thought Rosie needed a puppy and I maintain that we were right.

For one thing, Rosie is getting all kinds of extra things now--chew toys and knuckle bones and rope tugs. For another thing, she is playing way more than she has in a long time, and this is nothing but good. At the end of the day, she is tired.

And for another thing, she is getting waaaaay more treats than she normally gets because every time Angus gets a treat she is right there, staring with those big eyes, and so I make her sit or lie down (you never treat a dog unless the dog has earned it somehow) and she does so, perfectly, she mastered those skills long ago, and I give her a Charlee Bear or a piece of kibble and she feels like there is balance in the universe once more.

They growl when they play, and they flash their teeth and they smack each other with their paws and they roll over and they curl their lips and I could watch this all day long.

In puppy class on Saturday, the teacher talked about a puppy's need for different kinds of chewing--tearing, gnawing and pulling. So on Sunday morning we went out and bought knuckle bones (for gnawing) and nylabones (ditto) and a couple of fleece toys (for tearing and disembowling, another requirement), and rope toys (for pulling) and now we are broke but they were busy all afternoon.

Our house is a total wreck, with puppy toys and shards of cardboard tubes and brown paper all over the floor, and our coats in haphazard piles in the kitchen, because we go out with Angus every half hour and what's the point in hanging things up?

But we don't mind the chaos. It means there are happy busy creatures here. Plenty of time to be tidy and quiet when we're old. Puppies keep you young.