While you can't get the same warm and fuzzy feeling from a virtual puppy that you can with the real, flesh-and-blood thing, you can get something with a lot of the same qualities -- and, of course, clean up is a lot easier.
Granted, Howie's mother might linger for weeks but she's still his only flesh and blood.
They require the same things that a flesh-and-blood puppy would need -- food, water, a clean place to live, exercise and attention.
He was quite as clear as Luther in repudiating the medieval doctrine of transubstantiation, but he declined to accept Luther's teaching that Christ's words of institution required the belief that the real flesh and blood of Christ co-exist in and with the natural elements.
Nor let the obvious and first hand meaning of what I said about my flesh and blood disturb you when you hear it.