On my birthday we collected two toy poodle puppies. We have a boy and a girl. Magdalena said that if she could pick the breed, I could pick the colour and name them.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Snake-Eyes and Baroness (or maybe Baroness and Snake-Eyes; they didn’t have their collars at the time the photo was taken, so I don’t know which is which):

Initially we had planned on getting a little girl (I can’t bring myself to call her a bitch) but when we were at the breeder’s home a few weeks ago, when we were visiting Baroness at about 4 weeks of age, Magdalena got to meet Snake-Eyes. She had a play with him whilst I was nursing Baroness, and they hit it off. Then and there I knew we needed to get both pups, and we had talked about getting a second at a later stage – I just skipped the waiting part.

They’ve been getting on great and only whine when we put them back in their playpen before they’re exhausted. They’re eating properly and don’t appear to be missing their mum at all. I think having a brother-sister pair meant that they’ve got a friend to play with all day.

Magdalena’s doing a great job trying to toilet train them whilst she’s on holidays, and I can’t wait until they’re a little older and have had their next round of vaccinations. That will mean they can come into the office for a visit. I know the Epic crew will love to meet them, and maybe they’ll have a play date with Aaron’s dwarf rabbit, Mathilda, who’s sometimes found hopping around our office.

I’ve recorded a few videos of the puppies running around our back yard which I’ll upload to YouTube, allowing me to boast like a proud parent.