Remembering Misha--Part 1, Welcome to the Family

Hubby and I married in January 1994 then Hubby relocated to be with me in the Far North Chicagoland. We were in our very first house and had met two wonderful couples just down the street— The U’s and The C’s. It was great! They were wonderful friends. The U’s had a female Siberian Husky named Alexis. She was so sweet. She was enamored with Hubby and would actually position herself between him and me. It was too funny!! The C’s had a male Siberian Husky named Nikita (Nikki). He was HUGE and could place his front paws on Mr. C’s shoulders (Mr. C is about 6ft 6in!!!). He looked quite intimidating but he was just a big push over!

Well, Alexis and Nikki got twitterpated and on December 9, 1994, Alexis gave birth. Six pups. She was a smaller dog and had trouble whelping them so she ended up with a C-section. She was very weak and the U’s almost lost her so the pups had to come home that night while Alexis stayed in the hospital to recover. We all got to hold the just born pups and help feed them with tiny little bottles. It was amazing!

They were adorable. Alexis Jr. (AJ) looked just like her mother. Brutus was the biggest pup of the six. Piggy had two little black dots on her nose that looked like a pig nose. Dakota had two black dots on his belly and was picked that first day to be The C’s pup. George was named after a Bugs Bunny cartoon. You know the one. “I’ll hug him and squeeze him and call him George.”

They were all black and white except for the last one…..Silver. She had the most beautiful silver/grey fur. You could always pick her out of the pup pile!! She was beautiful and different and …………and she was slowly winning our hearts.

Every time we went to visit, Silver ended up in our laps. Mr. U was always making a fishing motion when we held her--like he was reeling us in. We kept telling them we just weren’t ready for a pet. It’s too much responsibility. But still, she kept ending up in our laps and Mr. U kept making that reeling motion.

We all got together just before Christmas to celebrate the holiday with our friends—our family, really, since ours were 800 miles away. Once again, Silver was in our laps. I looked at Hubby and said, “Can we name her Misha??” And Mr. U was in the corner, frantically reeling………hook……line…….and sinker.