PUPPIES!

My mom and I stopped at our friends' place after the dog shows last Sunday. John and Heather have Taylor and Sunny's mom, Piper. They recently bred her again and decided to host a "family reunion" for a few of the new owners of the four-month-old pups, our breeder Alison, and the folks with our boys' sister litter mate.

We counted 10 dogs while we were there... that's quite a pack of Tollers in their relatively small backyard! Taylor was a bit... excited by all the lady pups so we kept him leashed while the rest ran and frolicked.

I promptly sat on the floor of the patio to get a better view of the puppy action--and not soon after one of the more shy pups, Flynn, decided my lap was a safer place to be than in the middle of the puppy pile. Of course, that didn't stop the other puppies from coming to see him (or wrestle with him while he was still in my lap).

I didn't mind.

The puppies were all super sweet-- and their new owners were also very nice! I wish we could have stayed longer... and that we weren't already exhausted by the long weekend (and my long week leading up to it).

Sunny had a BLAST chasing the toys the young boys kept throwing. I think that he would have liked to have a boy of his own that's always ready to throw him a toy or two.

This is their littermate, Zoe. She was just as toy-crazy as our own boys! She really takes after their mother, Piper, in looks. (She was focused on the toy that Sunny had taken and then hid behind me.)

Betsy was also there... the old lady and grandmother of the pack, clearly devoted to Alison. (She also took refuge behind me a few times. Puppies can be a bit much for an 11-year-old lady!)

I would have happily taken any of the pups home with me right then! It just made me more excited for the "someday" when I'll add another pup to my household... but that "someday" is still off a little ways.