“Can we get a little one? I want to name it Flower!”

But we aren’t standing at a pet store or heading to the humane society – we’re huddled on the couch popping in Nintendogs on my DS Lite (which coincidentally has more or less become their DS Lite).

I load the game and realize my two kids have been feeding, walking, shopping and training five different dogs amassing almost three thousand Nintendollars (or whatever they call it in-game) and mastering this game that was kidnapped by them at Christmas.

‘How about we go play with Tyler, your real dog?’

“Aww, alright – but he smells bad”.