You know what they say…when you get knocked down, get right back up again, unless you’re being besieged by adorable puppy dogs.

Twitter user @hallecow is finally putting paid to the idea that there’s nothing cuter than a bunch of tiny puppies. There is, and it’s a bunch of puppies and a dog flopping all over an adorable child.

▼ “Too cute…then it made my daughter cry.”

https://twitter.com/hallecow/status/1068321593758105600

In the video we see @hallecow’s little girl toddle happily along, ensconced in an entourage of miniature dogs. Then WHUMP! she falls over flat on her face, just like little girls tend to do even when they aren’t surrounded by dogs. “Are you alright?” calls her mother, but don’t worry: the pups are on the case!

They wriggle and climb all over @hallecow’s little girl while she tries to get her bearings enough to stand back up. While her mother comments on how determined the puppies are to comfort her and how they don’t seem to want to let her stand up, the little girl pushes eager dogs away from her face only for them to clamber back up and excitedly lick her again.

When the combined weight of all the puppies is enough to knock her over for a second time, it looks like the little girl starts to cry for real, at which point Mom stops filming to help her get up.

It doesn’t look as though the girl ever falls down hard enough for her to seriously hurt herself, but with this being the Internet it wasn’t long at all before judgmental comments started pouring in. With the welfare of both animals and children at stake, it was a perfect storm:

“That kid is gonna grow up to hate dogs.”
“Too scary…and then it made the mom laugh.”
“Why didn’t you help your kid?”
“She’s definitely gonna get sick with all those dogs licking her face.”

Plenty of other users commented to show support for @hallecow though, with their own stories of growing up surrounded by animals and how it imbued them with a lifelong appreciation for wildlife: quite the opposite of the inevitable trauma promised by other commenters.

In a tweet after the fact, @hallecow responded to the concern in the replies with this message:

https://twitter.com/hallecow/status/1069109965892214784

“The video of my daughter with the dogs spread way further than I was ever expecting. Some of the comments I got were a little upsetting to read, but I can’t defend myself ten times over to people who I can’t see or don’t even know… I ended up laughing and feeling better when my sister forwarded some of the comments to me over LINE to get angry on my behalf! Anyway, I want my daughter to grow up happy and healthy, surrounded by all kinds of animals.”

The puppies in question were puppies from one of the dogs on @hallecow’s farm, up for adoption. As it turns out dogs are by far not the only animal her daughter comes into close contact with! Every day the little girl gets to help out her farmhand mother with cows and cats, too.

https://twitter.com/hallecow/status/1057546569715576832

At any rate, this little girl is probably going to have plenty of more wonderful experiences in life, so here’s hoping any potential trauma is cancelled out.

Source: Twitter/@hallecow
Featured image: Twitter/@hallecow