The following post was sent to author/cartoonist Steph Diorio by her two Old English Sheepdogs, Barnaby and Louise. This was their first Puppy Bowl ever and they really wanted to share their perspectives on the greatest canine sporting event of the year.

Hi, everyone! We’re Barnaby and Louise Diorio, and we’re trying out our big sister’s job today! She writes about sports and it looks like a lot of fun, but we’re finally getting a turn!

Yesterday we got to watch our very first Puppy Bowl – Puppy Bowl VIII. It was really awesome! What a game – tons of action and excitement and even a brother-sister pair like us teaming up to take down the competition! It’s always awesome when you see athletes you can relate to. It was awesome! Here’s our take on the whole thing:

We pregamed by watching Too Cute: Puppies!

We were really pumped up for this game since we watched Too Cute: Puppies first and it really got us in the mood for some puppy competition. And it was awesome right out of the gate, with Fumble having three touchdowns in the first half and two of the dogs out there achieving a Puppy Bowl first, a double touchdown. They both walked into the endzone at the same time. That was really impressive! (Louise would like to add that Barnaby doesn’t have the attention span to do that with her. He disagrees, but whatever.)

So let’s talk about the puppies now! The most exciting part of the game was definitely the third quarter, when Australian shepherd mix Aberdeen scored four touchdowns in one quarter, a Puppy Bowl record! As fellow herding dogs, we were super-stoked over this. It was one of the coolest things we’ve ever seen in the eight months we’ve been alive!

Even better? Aberdeen has a sister, Abilene, and she scored, too! It was just like us and it was really awesome!

Aberdeen and Abilene, our heroes! Photos courtesy of Animal Planet.

 In the end, Fumble was named MVP, and we were fine with that because he brought an excellent combination of both offense and defense to the field today. He was really an all-around player, and we were impressed. Everyone played really well though, so congrats to all the puppies taking the field! The best part of this is that they all get to go to amazing homes now just like ours!

Steph and her family spoil us and the four cats (who watched the Kitty Half-Time Show with us and were as shocked as we were when one of the kittens looked just like our cat brother Murphy) and it’s great when other dogs and cats get to enjoy the same lifestyle we do – being LOVED!

We realized something from today: we really do like watching sports! Whether we’re taking in a soccer game with Steph’s brother Tom or watching Steph scream at the Mets for not being good at baseball, it’s fun to watch people – and dogs like us – running around on the TV. We’re so lucky to live with a human family who likes sports!

Sports forever!

Barnaby and Louise Diorio are Steph Diorio’s beloved Old English Sheepdog puppies. They turn one year old on May 24th, 2012 and were thrilled to have the opportunity to write this article. You can find their big sister Steph writing about the Orioles, Red Sox and Stanford baseball when she’s not chasing them around.