"Just like my Aibo!" my one friend commented sarcasticly when he saw it sitting on a shelf in our living room. But other than being grey and dog-shaped and being able to make dog-esque sounds, the iPuppy holds little in common with an Aibo.

For one, the iPuppy cost me a whopping $9.95 at Acme. I first saw the iPuppy on the Internet. They were for sale at some two bit gag site and even though I was tempted to buy one, something just seemed wrong about giving my credit card number to a website named stupid.com.

I had looked in several toystores for the iPuppy with no success. They had several Aibo knock-offs, but none of them were as poignant as the iPuppy, so I just kept looking.

Then, just last week while we were food shopping at the local Acme, I happened to glance over at the toy shelf opposite the cheese refridgerator and noticed a whole stack of iPuppies. It Walks and Barks the package exclaimed. Batteries were even included.

When opportunity knocks, I am not one to turn away. So I quickly swiped one from the shelf and dropped it in our cart. Once we got home, I opened it up as quickly as I could and started walking it back and forth across the living room floor.

Lacie immediately shrunk away and left the room. As the iPuppy walked and barked, Lacie eased gingerly into the doorway where she watched carefully from a distance. She was not about to test her luck with this new creature.

A while later, after letting the iPuppy sit quietly, Lacie slowly made her way towards it to check it out. A thorough sniffing and a few tenuous nose pokes eased Lacie's fears a bit.

She's still not fond of the iPuppy when it moves or speaks, but it hasn't taken her place yet, so she manages to tolerate its odd antics. Just so long as it doesn't start eating her food.