MOM, the dogs are in for the night. They want to know how Maggie the Wonder dog is because they like good dog stories. Like the one my niece told to her father, my brother. She and her boyfriend moved to Minnesota last summer, from sunny southern CA. They fit in well, and even added to the family, adopting a charming mixed breed (who looks like she should be her own breed, and probably has a lot of Australian shepherd and maybe some English pointer) pup named Lucy. They take now-one-year-old Lucy to dog parks regularly, and they visited a new park a few weeks ago. They saw Lucy paying particular attention to another dog, sniffing, playing, leaving but always going back to hang out with him. And he had her coloring. They spoke to the owner, a 13-year-old girl, and realized these two were litter mates! Of course she recognized him. They were adopted from the same shelter in the big city, and had information about age and birthday to compare and confirm.

They plan to go back to see if they get lucky and let the dogs play together again.