Morninglow Cotons

Morninglow Puppies 

Morninglow puppies are bred with care, knowledge, and lots and lots of love!  We are very small-scale breeders, looking to produce quality rather than quantity.  We breed for ourselves and our own program, but from time to time we have a small number of puppies available for carefully vetted pet homes. All of our breeding dogs (and any outside dogs we use in our breeding program) are thoroughly health-tested and the results of the testing posted on the public website of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (www.offa.org).  I breed primarily for health and for temperament. While science is not so advanced as to be able to control EVERYTHING, we do try to control for anything that we can.  Additionally, we test our dogs in the show ring for conformation.  Babies spend their first few weeks of life in my bedroom with round-the-clock monitoring by both me and their mom, and then move downstairs to get used to the sights and sounds of a home environment.  As they progress and grow, they are exposed to different people, car travel, visits  anywhere a puppy can legally be taken (i.e., the bank, the dry cleaners, homes of friends and family members). We rotate  different toys and surfaces into their playpen for them to explore, and as they start to develop some independence from mom, they learn to interact and play outside the pen with the other dogs in our house.  By the time they go to their new homes, they are well started on their socialization journey; however it is of the utmost importance that this journey be continued by their new forever families.  Puppies are like little sponges and soak up their environments.  The more situations and people they are exposed to (subject of course to safety and vaccination protocols), the better and more well-adjusted they will be as adult dogs.  We require our forever families to provide formal training to our puppies, at least two series of classes.  One should be an obedience training class within the dog's first year of life, the other can be a class of your choice.  There are a large variety of classes to choose from at many different facilities.  Healthy Cotons de Tulear are active, athletic dogs that enjoy exercise and mental stimulation. There can never be too much training. My mantra is, the more you do with your puppy, the happier you will be with the adult dog your puppy will eventually become!   If you are interested in a puppy from a future Morninglow litter, please contact us and we can send you our puppy questionnaire to see if a Morninglow puppy might be a good fit for your and your family!  On occasion, we may also have a retired adult available.

2023 "Musical Legends" Litter is here!

Our precious Sophie finally became a mom in the wee hours of April 27th, delivering three beautiful puppies, two girls and one boy. Our Artie is the dad, and I decided to try to combine elements of their names, which of course led to the above.  But WHO to choose as "musical legends"??  Harder than I thought to pick just three, but with the help of my youngest daughter, I settled on a single legendary band that produced an iconic album back in the 70s that has absolutely stood the test of time.....so the legend is FLEETWOOD MAC!  Our girls are named for the band's female vocalists, Stevie Nicks and the late Christine McVie, and our boy for legendary lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Pups are six weeks old now and growing quickly; all are reserved, but I know people like to see baby puppy photos, so please enjoy these.....

THE PARENTS

ABOVE, the sire of the litter, GCHS CH Morninglow's Arthurian Legend, our own Artie. Artie was the #1 Coton de Tulear all-systems in 2020, and Best of Opposite Sex at Westminister 2021.

RIGHT, the puppies' mother and my heart dog, NBISS GCHB CH Morninglow's Thank You For The Music CGCA TKN.  Sophie was the winner of the USACTC 2020 National Specialty show, following in the footsteps of her parents (Hammie and Nina), who between them won all the USACTC National Specialty shows from 2017-2019 before her. Sophie was also the #1 Coton bitch all-systems in 2021 and a top five Coton in a very abbreviated show career.

THE PUPPIES


CLOCKWISE from top left:

Morninglow's Silver Springs (Nikki), Morninglow's Steal Your Heart Away (Bucky), a group shot of all three puppies at 20 days of age, and Morninglow's Songbird (Vivie).  The individual shots were taken at age 5  weeks.

OUR 2021 "IN THE HEIGHTS" LITTER
ON 9/11/21 we happily welcomed a new litter of three into our Morninglow family; two boys and one girl, born to our Nina (BISS RBIS GCHS Whispering Lane's Just Right For Morninglow) sired by our own home-bred Artie (GCHS Multi-GCH CH Morninglow's Arthurian Legend).  Nina was the No. 1 Coton de Tulear all-systems in AKC in the year 2018 and Artie was the No. 1 Coton de Tulear all-systems for the year 2020 and is holding steady in that same position for 2021 as of this writing (10/12/21). I knew that two beautiful dogs would make some beautiful babies. :-)  This time around I was inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda yet again; we saw "In the Heights" many years ago onstage, but had forgotten most of the great music and lyrics he is known for.  Re-discovered it with the movie.  These puppies were all spoken for long before their birth (please see above) and none are available; however I wanted to share a couple of cute photos of mom, dad and the babies.  They just turned a month old yesterday and everyone is doing well. 
ABOVE, puppies in the whelping box at about ten days old.  The little girl is the one whose face is visible.
BELOW, individual shots at age 4 weeks with each puppy's call name.  All are characters from the show.

LEFT, Artie in a posed shot from last spring

ABOVE, Nina in an older photo from the beginning of her national campaign with our handler Laura King. Nina was always the happiest dog in the show ring! Together Artie and Nina made a beautiful combo <3
OUR 2020 "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" LITTER

Nina and Hammie were such a hit together last year that we went for a repeat performance!  On July 11th, Nina gave birth to a litter of four all-white little boys and a single all-white litter girl. I had been having trouble coming up with theatrical inspiration in the middle of a pandemic, but I remembered how much I enjoyed the Queen bio pic during my flight to Tokyo on Christmas Day last year.  In fact, almost six months later I still couldn't get certain of the songs out of my head, lots of memories of high school and college, so I just decided to go with it!  Momma Nina did her usual outstanding job of a quick delivery, especially impressive given the size she had grown to carrying so many little ones, and she has done her also always excellent job of feeding, cleaning and raising them.  They have currently just hit the five-week mark (mid-August), and all are beginning to learn to eat solid food, are walking and playing with each other and showing great curiosity as regards the rest of our pack!  Nina is completely comfortable allowing big sister Sophie into the general area where the puppies are in their pen, and Sophie just ADORES them, cant get enough of watching and I am sure can't wait to get a chance to play!  

ALL OF THE PUPPIES IN THIS LITTER HAVE BEEN RESERVED PRIOR TO BIRTH AND NONE ARE AVAILABLE.  However, again I know every likes some cute puppy photos, so here they are!  I will update if I can before they leave for their new homes.

ABOVE, the group at 3 days old.  No, I can't tell you who is who in this photo :-)
BELOW, individual  puppy photos at 3 weeks of age.  The change is always so remarkable!
Morninglow's Mr. Fahrenheit (Freddie)
Morninglow's Love of My Life (Mimi), our only female <3
Morninglow's Speed of Light (Sonic)
Morninglow's My Best Friend (Sunny)
Morninglow's Don't Stop Me Now (Star)

HERE are our five bundles of joy at age 8 weeks, a few weeks before they started to leave us for their new homes. Sonic is the puppy up front and Mimi is second from left.  The other three resembled each other so much, and were moving around so quickly when we tried to take this photo, but I cannot say for sure which of the other three boys is who, lol.  They are spread out all over the country now, east coast, west coast and one in the midwest.  I've been receiving photos, they are all adjusting nicely to their new families and new lives, and one of them I hopefully expect to see in the show ring next year!  Can't wait :-)

MOM and DAD

Mom and Dad are a repeat of last year's fabulous pairing!  Father of the puppies is our own Hamilton, now known as NMBISS GCHS CH Morninglow's New York Man, the Number 1 Coton de Tulear in the USA for 2019, the recipient of 60 career regular group placements, a Top 40 Non-Sporting Dog, the 2019 American Kennel Club National Champion Coton and a two-time back-to-back United States of America Coton de Tulear Club National Specialty Show Winner.....(can I take a breath now?  I'm still blown away all these months later by everything Hammie was able to accomplish in his relatively short show career).  Momma is equally wonderful, our Nina, properly known as RBIS NBISS GCHS CH Whispering Lane's Just Right for Morninglow.  Nina was the No. 1 Coton de Tulear in the USA in 2018, the year prior to Hamilton, was also a Top 40 Non-Sporting Dog, was the recipient of over 80 career regular group placement awards, including 15 Group Ones and an all-breed Reserve Best in Show, and was the winner of the 2017 USACTC National Specialty Show in 2017 and Best of Opposite Sex winner at the AKC National Championship show in Orlando in 2018.  Two fabulous parents, both fully-health tested and clear for all the diseases we are currently able to test for.  My dream team <3.  Most importantly for me, they are both wonderful, loving house pets with great temperaments, who just happened to also love to show.  Their daughter, Sophie, from our Mamma Mia litter, became a champion herself at the age of 10 months just before the pandemic shut everything down.  I love both Hamilton and Nina to the moon and back and consider myself so incredibly fortunate to wake them each morning and put them to bed each night.  And on top of that they produce beautiful babies! Two of my favorite photos below: 
LEFT, ABOVE: NMBISS GCHS CH Morninglow's New York Man (Hamilton)
RIGHT, ABOVE: RBIS NBISS GCHS CH Whispering Lane's Just Right for Morninglow (Nina)
PUPPY VIDEO!!

Here is a little snippet of video of the Rhapsody Puppies, taken by me on my phone at some point in between 3 and 4 weeks of age.  You can watch little Mimi getting her sea legs and taking a walk from the front of the box, over to her mother in the back of the box and back up to me again. Freddie is the puppy attempting to eat her, lol.  Always adorable seeing them taking their first steps! Enjoy!!

OUR 2019 "Mamma Mia" Litter

OUR beautiful Nina gave birth to her first litter just after Mother's Day 2019, consisting of three all-white boys and one all-white girl.  I had really expected them on Mother's Day, thus the musical theme for THIS litter, but they waited just a bit past, arrived in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, May 14th.  Mom had an easy delivery and all puppies did well right off the bat.  The sire to this beautiful group is our own Hamilton, was truly a dream breeding for us!  I am extremely late in posting about this, and all the males have now gone to their new homes.  We are keeping the little girl for awhile to grow her out and to decide if we want to add her to our program.  Although late in posting, I know everyone likes puppy photos, and so here are a few of the Mamma Mia gang while they were here with us.  Nina was a great mom, and took to everything naturally and with her usual good humor.  Hamilton has been out showing and missed the boys (not that I think he really cares lol), but got to meet his daughter this past week, and I think he really liked her <3  Please enjoy the baby photos, I took zillions, but need to transfer them from my phone, so I will eventually add more.
ME with all four babies just before they started leaving for new homes in mid-July, 2019.  Left to right, are Skye, Louie, Trouper and Sophie, the only girl.  They are almost nine weeks old in this photo.  I will add individual photos of each with their proper kennel names as soon as I have a chance.
MEET THE PARENTS

Two of the most beautiful dogs I have ever laid eyes on (yes I know I am a little biased ) :-D
BISS GCHB CH Morininglow's New York Man ("Hamilton"), sire to his second litter, his first for me.  My own happy and exuberant boy, born and raised in my bedroom, first-born son in his momma Ruby's second litter in March, 2016. Hammie was the National Specialty Show winner in 2018, and is currently the NUMBER ONE Coton de Tulear all-breed and the NUMBER ONE Group winning Coton to date in 2019.
BISS RBIS GCHS CH Whispering Lane's Just Right for Morninglow ("Nina"), dam to this litter.  Our amazing princess, show dog extraordinaire, always unflappable and always exuding joy.  Nina was born in September, 2015 in Phoenix, AZ.  Nina was the NUMBER ONE COTON DE TULEAR all-systems for 2018, NUMBER ONE Croup winning Coton for both 2017 and 2018, National Specialty Winner 2017 and Top 40 Non-Sporting Dog for 2018.  Now just the queen of our hearts and an amazing mom :-)

"MAMMA MIA" babies at 2 weeks old!
(end of May, 2019)

ABOVE, Morninglow's Waterloo @ Bar-Ken's (Louie)
ABOVE, Morninglow's Man After Midnight (Skye)
ABOVE, Morninglow's Super Trouper (Trouper)
ABOVE, our little princess, Morninglow's Thank You For The Music (Sophie)
Our 2018 "Camelot Litter"

Ruby blessed us with her final litter in the wee hours of the morning on Friday March 30, 2018 with a beautiful group of three puppies, one boy and two girls! As I am traveling to the south of England this summer and visiting the area of that country from which the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table hail, I knew my inspiration this time around would be the wonderful 1960's Lerner and Lowe musical "Camelot", the story of King Arthur, his knight Sir Lancelot, and his lovely Queen Guinevere.   Our puppies, left to right in this photo, are Morninglow's Arthurian Legend (Artie), Morninglow's Mist of Avalon (Ava) and Morninglow's Queen of Camelot (Gennie).  I'm busy caring for the little ones right now as they are growing and learning, but I will post more pictures as they mature.  PLEASE NOTE: This litter is already reserved, no one is available.  The photo above was taken at three weeks of age.  Photos of mom and dad are below.
ABOVE, our precious "Ruby"-- GCH CH Spirit Bear Jewel of Versace CM, dam to this litter.
 RIGHT, BIS GCHB CH Mi-Toi's Icon CM, sire to this litter.  Icon is the only male Coton de Tulear to receive an all-breed Best in Show award to date in American Kennel Club competition.  We thank Luis Ortiz of Mi-Toi Cotons in Florida for lending Icon's good looks to our program. We think the two of them made a lovely combination!  More photos to follow......
UPDATE ABOVE!  NEW PHOTOS
LEFT, puppies at three weeks old, ready to jump out of their first home and start exploring the world!  Left to right, they are Avalon, Gennie and Artie.
RIGHT, puppies at seven weeks old, after their first baths, posing in a basket. Left to right they are Artie, Avalon and Gennie.  Growing up much too fast :-)

ABOVE LEFT and RIGHT, Artie (Morninglow's Arthurian Legend), the boy puppy, and Ava (Morninglow's Mist of Avalon), the tri-colored girl, at 21 weeks in August 2018.  The third girl, Gennie (Morninglow's Queen of Camelot), left us for her forever home back in July, and is adored by her new family, which includes an 8-year girl who built her a doll bed to sleep in.  Must find that photo and post it!  We like Artie and Ava so much that they are both staying here with us for the time being, while we grow them out a bit more.  Two adorable, sweet and loving pups; they are exhausting me, but worth every minute! Notice how much Ava's jet black coloring at birth is fading out!  I will post more photos as she grows and continues to change in appearance.


OUR 2017 LITTER HAS ARRIVED!!



Introducing the "Chicago Cubs Championship" Litter

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of a new litter for 2017, born in the morning of Saturday, July 15th!  We decided on a  repeat of our 2015 breeding of Besito x Ruby, and were rewarded with a lovely tri-colored male and a beautiful snow-white little female, the first little girl that Ruby OR Besito has ever produced!  I have been a life-long baseball fan, and particularly of the Chicago Cubs; it was a long-suffering passion that I have shared with my late father and my  younger sister, and their World Series win last fall was an emotional dream come true, as it was for many other Chicago baseball fans.  So I had to honor the end of the 108-year championship drought with puppy names!  The little boy is named Morninglow's Lets Play Two ("Ernie") in honor and memory of the best Cubs player of my lifetime, Mr. Ernie Banks, and the little girl is named Morninglow's Swinging for the Ivy ("Ivy") in honor of Wrigley Field's classic outfield walls.  Both puppies were reserved before birth, so neither is available, but I wanted to share some of their early photos.  I will add more as time goes on.  Puppy time is very precious and goes by far too fast.
LEFT, Ernie (boy) at two weeks old; ABOVE, Ivy (girl) at same age.

MEET THE PARENTS!!

 ABOVE, GCH CH SPIRIT BEAR JEWEL OF VERSACE CM (RUBY), the mother of this litter.

RIGHT, MBISS GCHS CH DIOR'S BESAME MUCHO MORNINGLOW CM2 CGC (BESITO), the father of the litter.

  If you are familiar with our site, you probably already know a lot about these two.  If you are not, you can find out more about their accomplishments both in and out of the show ring by going to the "Our Cotons" tab, and then to "Our Males" or "Our Females".  There is also information about both of them in the "News" tab.  Aside from the fact that we adore both of them, they also seem to adore each other.  We have had other males in the house, and Ruby has always only had eyes for Besito!  And Besito follows her around adoringly :-)  They make a very happy couple!  Ruby has been an outstanding mother to all of her offspring, and has continued to be so with this litter.  Besito is also an amazingly good dad, especially to the ones he seems to know instinctively are his own!

LEFT, puppies about 12 hours after birth.  Ruby does her usual great job cleaning them up; ABOVE, Ruby attending to her very first little girl, Ivy, about ten days after birth.  More to come......
 ABOVE, Ivy at about 18 weeks old, a few weeks before she left us to join her new family.  She lives close by with her big brother from our "Irish Litter", Chubs, in a wonderful family and we get to visit both of them regularly.   

 RIGHT, Ernie at about 10 weeks old, before he left for his new family.

OUR 2016 "Hamilton Litter"

 Our Ruby is proud to announce the birth of her second litter on the afternoon of March 13, 2016!  She and the daddy, World Dog Show Winner 2012 GCH Sugar's Bay's Beringer, owned by my friend Beverly Kohler, are the proud parents of two beautiful pure white baby boys! Ruby and the babies are doing well and are currently twelve weeks old.  If you have poked around on this website, you will have discovered that we are American musical theatre geeks around here, and named our breeding program "Morninglow" after a beautiful song in the famous Broadway show "Pippin"!  Continuing the tradition of looking to the theatre for inspiration, this year's litter is named in honor of the hottest ticket currently playing on Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda's brilliant and revolutionary telling of the story of our founding fathers, "Hamilton-An American Musical."  We were fortunate enough to be able to see this spectacular show on Valentine's Day, the day before Besito took Select Dog at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York, and I decided right then and there that I had my theme!  Immediately below are photos of mom and dad, and below that, photos of the new babies. We have loved watching them grow and develop, and watching momma Ruby take her usual EXCELLENT care of her young.  

THE PARENTS

MOM

CH Spirit Bear Jewel of Versace CM ("Ruby") 

You can find a link to Ruby's extensive health testing on record with the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals by clicking here.

DAD

WDW 2012 GCH Sugar Bay's Beringer 

You can find a link to Beringer's extensive health testing on record with the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals by clicking here.

......AND THE KIDS........ 

OUR FIRST-BORN, Morninglow's New York Man ("Hammie) 

OUR SECOND-BORN, Morninglow's Here Comes The General ("Georgie") 

MOMMA RUBY hanging out with the babies at about two weeks old .  Hammie is the one facing the camera.

HAMMIE, left, and Georgie, hanging out with the "Hamiltome", the book about the show that inspired their names :-) 

Enjoy some cute video I shot of the pups playing with their new baby gym! 

GROWING UP QUICKLY!! 

HAMILTON at seven weeks of age, end of April, 2016 

GEORGIE at seven weeks, end of April 2016 

PUPPY TIME PASSES MUCH TOO FAST!! 

Murphy has been staying with his other momma for a few weeks while I have been busy with the puppies, and we recently brought him over to meet Hammie and Georgie for the very first time.  Little brothers seemed non-plussed by big brother, and big brother was both gentle and sweet with the little ones!  Nice for Murphy to meet some baby dogs, and nice for the little pups to get accustomed to yet another member of the family.  Win-win!!  Enjoy the  video below.... 

OUR 2015 "IRISH LITTER"

 Our first Besito x Ruby litter arrived late in the evening on Tuesday March 17, 2015. Mom had a routine labor and natural delivery, and turned out to be a fantastic mother to her three little boys. I loved helping Ruby deliver and raise this litter, watching the pups grow and develop their own personalities, and to see how easily and naturally Ruby took to first-time motherhood.   All pups were sold and have moved on to their new forever  homes.  We have kept a co-ownership on our litter pick, Morninglow's Irish Lullaby (Murphy), and he has not disappointed us!  Before the age of nine months, with only a few times in the show ring, he  received Winners Dog (best class male) three times, one of them being a three-point major win at the 2015 Eukanuba National Championship!!  He is now "CH Morninglow's Irish Lullaby", having completed his AKC Show Championship at the age of 13 months with only limited showing.  You can find more photos of Murphy by clicking on the "our cotons" tab and then clicking on "our males".  He is listed under his daddy Besito.

 Please enjoy some baby photos from the first few months, and a funny video of two of the pups playing below.

ABOVE LEFT, our "first-born"; arrived at about 9:30 pm, weighing 5.6 ounces.  He is the smallest of the litter, although not by much, but is full of friendly spunk! 


ABOVE RIGHT, our "second-born"--THE BIG GUY--born at 10:30 pm and a whopping 8.1 ounces!!  We nicknamed him "Chubs" for a few weeks until we could decide on his registered kennel name! 


ACROSS RIGHT, our "baby", the last-born, weighing in at 6.5 ounces at 11:15 pm.  After delivering big Bailey, mom hardly noticed this one's arrival :-)  However, she soon figured out that Murphy is the snuggler of the bunch!  He is super affectionate, loves to be held, kissed and cuddled!

SOME ADDITIONAL BABY PHOTOS FROM THE FIRST FEW WEEKS!!

CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT, Bailey cuddling a toy; Murphy giving  me quite the intense stare on the day he opened his eyes for the very first time; Murphy yawning just before nap time; and the entire group a day or two after birth. 

Our Irish Litter started leaving home at Memorial Day, here is my last photo with all four of us together, also some photos of the boys between 9 and 12 weeks of age. Enjoy! 

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT,  CHUBS (formerly "Bailey", we tried, but that name wouldn't stick), Murphy and Finn.

BELOW, LEFT, Chubs in his new forever home.  His mom was kind enough to send this to me.

BELOW, RIGHT, Finn in our house at about 12 weeks of age, just before he left for his new family

BELOW, LEFT AND RIGHT, Murphy, who will stay with us part-time as we co-own him with another family and continue to watch him fade!  Should be fun!! 

THE IRISH BOYS @ 9 months old!

ABOVE, Murphy's official win picture from the 2015 AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in Orlando, Florida.  Murphy was handled to this very exciting win by the lady who helped Ruby bring him into this world--ME!!  :-)

ABOVE, Murphy at home.  This is the same dog with the black mask across his face above!  Now an almost completely white Coton de Tulear! 

LEFT, Finnie at nine months. Almost all his reddish color is gone as well! 

ABOVE,Chubs celebrates his first Christmas with his forever family! Chubs seems to have kept the most color out of the three boys, but is still fading each time I see him.

BELOW, a cute video of  Finnie showing off his singing skills.  According to his forever mom, he only accompanies classical music, never pop or rock!!