We're back from my nephew's birthday! With pictures!

But not of the birthday. On this trip, I took pictures only of the pets. I'm not sure why. I just did. Maybe because I spent a couple hours with a roomful of screaming 10-year-0lds and then I got my tubes tied and I just didn't have the fortitude to record any of it for posterity. Anyway, here's my niece and nephew's preternaturally adorable new dog:

Here she is begging for attention (and scraps of food, if they happen to come with/lead to/follow the attention) in the kitchen:

And here's her only coloring — two little spots on her back and one giant one on her butt:

Here's my folks' cat warming her nose (we think) under a lamp:

Here was my first attempt at taking the above picture, when she deigned to take time out of her busy nose-warming schedule to look over and see what I was doing:

Since the paparazzi were out—and her hair and makeup looked so good—she also decided to give her fans a more glamorous layout: