At long last, a photo of Sophie. Yesterday we took her to Elm Bank on the Wellesley-South Natick line for an hour of romping and tennis ball-chasing, her favorite sport next to swimming. We brought her shopping with us to the Natick Outdoor Store after that. (I'd called ahead to make sure they allowed dogs). She was thrilled with the sock section and sniffed through the entire collection.

She seems to love the Outdoor Store, and gives it a higher rating than Petco and Brookline Booksmith. Her difficulty with the latter is that she does not yet understand the concept of browsing. It also tends to be quite crowded on the weekend, which is when we usually go. She complains she doesn't have enough room to stretch out. She loves the dog biscuits, though!