I have some exciting non-sheep related news. We are getting puppies in September!

A pair of Golden Retrievers (male and female) will soon call our farm home. I have been in contact with breeder Louise Guy (of Stoneledge Golden Retrievers) since June after losing our dear Daphne. At the time I wasn't sure we wanted another dog so soon but was intrigued to learn that Louise's dogs share common U.K. bloodlines with all three of our girls who passed away over the last year. After meeting Louise and falling in love with her dogs Holly, Crystal (the moms) and Gucci (the dad), we put our names on the list for one puppy and then quickly decided that we would rather raise two while we're at it.

The loss of our girls left a huge void in our home. Sure, we have pastures full of sheep and llamas and goats; we see plenty of four-legged critters in every direction when we look outside.

What we've really been missing this summer is sharing the sofa with a snoozing pooch, picking fur balls out of the beater bar on the vacuum cleaner, tripping over tennis balls and chew toys in the hallway, scooping clots of fluff from the swimming pool skimmer. . . and mostly the gigantic "<<<<<<HELLO! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??>>>>>>" whenever we step into the house.

We love our sheep, but they don't sleep at my feet when I settle down with with my knitting or a good book at the end of day. And the llamas are useless when it comes to retrieving tennis balls.

We raise sheep but we are dog people.

And so we are getting puppies. They were born in July. Today we met them for the first time.

OMG.

Can you tell we are just a little excited?!