And New Fur-Baby Makes Us a Family of Five!!

Today we officially became a family of five!

Please join us in joyfully welcoming our newest fur-baby.

Gershwin

Official AKC name: Gershwin Shall We Dance

Born: July 20, 2012

Gotcha Day: October 17, 2012

As you can see all of the fur kids were enthusiastic about the new arrangement.

As you can guess, we wanted another Jewish name . We also love music and what George and Ira Gershwin did for American music. We chose Shall We Dance based on both the lyrics and my love of dance.

Drop that long face. Come on. Have your fling.

Why keep nursing the blues?

If you want this old world on a string,

Put on your dancing shoes. Stop wasting time.

Put on your dancing shoes. Watch your spirits climb.

Shall we dance, or keep on moping?

Shall we dance and walk on air?

Shall we give in to despair?

Or shall we dance with never a care?

Life is short. We're growing older.

Don't you be an also ran. 

You've got to dance, little lady. Dance, little man.

Dance whenever you can.

Tovah spent the first few hours completely nonplussed by Gershwin's arrival. She even napped with me in the bedroom while Asher and Gershwin stayed in the kitchen area with Mom. We expected Tovah to be the one ecstatic about the arrival, but it was Asher who was most interested in the new baby. After dinner, though, Tovah and Gershwin played and played and played. 

It was a gorgeous day for us to spend plenty of time outside with the three dogs getting to know each other. Asher initiated the most play with Gershwin and seemed very excited about his new baby brother. He also is busy alerting us when Gershwin cries or seems to need something. This Asher of ours is a hard worker! (The other night, Tovah was up sick and he slept next to her crate supervising the entire night.) We could not be more amazed by Asher's love and protectiveness of his baby siblings (and of us). We are also overjoyed to see him playing happily again.

I am completely overwhelmed with joy. We have a house full of so much love and joy!

You can see from this photo how similar Tovah and Gershwin are in terms of their markings.

Gershwin is a true lap dog. Any time he sees or thinks a lap might be available he is ready to snuggle! And here Mom is getting lots and lots of kisses. I've turned her into a crazy dog person! :) As you can see poor little Gershwin's butt is shaved and it will take a while for this to grow out. (This is the traditional Lowchen cut, but we'll be keeping him in a puppy cut.)

He still really needs a middle name or first initials. I'm taking suggestions, especially for Jewish and Hebrew names. Some suggestions so far:

 Ron (pronounced Rone) or a variation such as Ronel, Ronen, Roni, or Ronli -- Song or joy, joyous song

Shir or Shira -- Song, Sing, Music

Simcha -- Joy

Zamir -- Song

Lirit -- We sing

Liron -- A song

Lev -- Heart

Tevye -- good, from Fiddler on the Roof

Leonard -- for Bernstein

Aron -- teaching, singing, shining, or mouton

Asa -- Healer

Gil, Gill, Gili, Gilli -- joy, my joy

Leor -- I have light

Ziv, Zivi -- To shine

Zusya -- Yiddish, Sweet

Our other possibility is to play off of the Gershwin initials and simply name him G.I. Gershwin, in honor of both George and Ira. 

Please check out all of the suggestions I've received on FB and chime in! :)

Thank you to all of you who have supported us on this journey. We have decided to seize the joy whenever we can, and having dogs is an incredible source of joy.

My heart is so very full.

Blessings,

Emily, Renee, Asher Noam, Tovah Rose and Gershwin