First and foremost, I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy and safe. If you are reading this, I want you to know I am sending my good thoughts your way during this very difficult time for all of us. Like many of you, we have friends who are sick right now and we also have friends who are helping on the frontlines to fight this pandemic. Life is like a roller coaster right now, and we are embracing all the various feelings. One day at a time! We will get through this together. I can not wait for the day that we can all get together in person again for one big celebration of life.

In the meantime, we are looking for small reasons to stay positive. We have so much to be grateful for each day. We hope the good news we are sharing now will bring a smile to your face. We have decided now is the best time for our family to get a dog. This was not a quick, impulse decision, do not worry. We have been thinking about this decision, and we have been researching this for YEARS.

One of our intentions for 2020 was to finally get a dog. Our original plan was to get the dog in May or June when the right litter was born from the breeders that we have been in touch with.

But once the COVID-19 crisis started, we began to rethink our original plan.  My husband is now working from home, and my kids are home doing virtual learning. Everyone is home and everyone is available to help with the puppy. We began to think the best time to do this was now. We reached out to the breeders that we had been in touch with, and only one of the breeders had any puppies available right now. The others would require more time. The breeder who had puppies now only had SHICHONS (aka “Teddy Bear” dogs). 

The Shichon is a cross between Shih Tzu and Bichon Frisé.  They are hypoallergenic, shed little, and they are great with kids. We decided to go for it! This was not part of our original plan, but that’s sometimes the best part. COVID-19 was also not part of anyone’s original plan for 2020. Our new puppy is female, and she is now 11 weeks old. We are excited to announce that we have finally settled on her name—meet Coco Clarke. “Coco” is the cutest little pup, and we are already in love with her!  The good news is we are all home to take extra good care of her. We also know Coco will provide so much comfort and joy to all of us in our house during this challenging time.

We hope this blog post brings a smile to your face. There is something very special about a dog, and right now that is very much needed. Our son, Charlie, put together this cute video to help capture the good news from Coco.

Sending you all good health and love right now from Connecticut.

xoxo Nina (new dog mom)