Back up to Six

You knew we couldn't hold out for long - we have selected the newest member of the Morningstar family! We put thought and research into the decision and finally chose to go with a puppy even though she'll be a lot of work in the beginning. And not just any puppy, we finally decided that, despite the sissy name, a labradoodle is the right dog for us.

If you're unfamiliar with labradoodles, they're a cross-breed between labrador retrievers and standard poodles (those are the cool, big poodles, not the sissy little freaky ones - no offense intended to sissy little freaky poodle owners), making for smart, friendly, very trainable dogs that don't shed. Each of these characteristics stands in stark contrast to Nesbitt who, God rest her soul, wasn't particularly intelligent, hated most other dogs and the vast majority of people, and shed constantly. We know that we were responsible for most of Nesbitt's idiosyncrasies and look forward to starting over with a blank slate of a puppy who is genetically predisposed to socially acceptable dog behaviors.

We are all thrilled with our puppy-to-be. She's only five weeks old now, so she won't come home for another couple of weeks. This is fortunate because it gives us a chance to read up on all of the "how to not screw up your dog" books that the library offers.

It's also given us time to decide on a name for our new pup, which has been no small task. We were committed to a Russian name and after trying several on for size we've finally settled on Chornaya, or Chorney for short. Chornaya is the female version of "black" in Russian, so it's sort of like naming her "Blackie." It sounds more creative in Russian :)

And although we are all looking forward to bringing home the sixth Morningstar, Sasha is clearly the most excited. The girl is dog-crazy! She had to kiss every puppy in the litter and here's a picture of her giving Chorney her 10th or 20th peck of the evening. We figured that if the chicks could survive Sasha's "love," a puppy should have no problem... right?

Sasha is so enamored that she has started demanding that we put Chorney's photos up on the computer screen so she can give them kisses. Now that's some serious puppy love!