I haven’t really written much about my four-legged child, but it’s about time she got her moment in the spotlight. Her name is Julie, and she’s part pitbull, part chihuahua. And before you stop to ask, “Wait, how does that even happen?”—trust me, I have no idea either. But it did. And she’s a total sweetheart.

Pitbulls get a bad rap, but Julie is the kind of dog who will melt your heart—and then try to melt her toys. We both recently moved and are currently staying at my parents’ place while I figure out where we’re headed next. That means Julie now has a roommate: a two-year-old chocolate lab named Tucker.

They get along great. Play a little rough sometimes, but hey—they’re dogs. And one thing about having multiple dogs is that stuffed animals don’t stand a chance. Before we moved here, there was only one toy Julie routinely destroyed: a cheap knockoff of Lamb Chop. You know the one. But now that she’s teamed up with Tucker—a young, energetic lab who wants to chew everything—things have escalated.

This morning, the two of them teamed up and absolutely annihilated a stuffed shark on my bedroom floor. It squeaked, which of course meant they had to get the squeaker out. In the process, they unstuffed the entire thing and then—because dogs—started trying to eat it.

Just another day in dog dad life.