HRH Princess Rivers Reed Rochelle made her Connecticut debut on January 4, 2019. I decided to name her after one of my musical heroes: Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer. "Reed" comes from her name at the Westchester Humane Society: Sweet Jane (which is also the name of a song written by Lou Reed). And "Rochelle" because we discovered her in New Rochelle, New York. "HRH Princess": well, she's obviously descended from royalty, as all canines are.

Rivers is a mix of dog breeds. "Terrier" is the catchall term for a wire-haired little dog, but she may have some cocker spaniel in her. Her curly hair indicates some poodle. She is certainly all cuteness. Though her fluff hides it, she is missing about half of her right ear. It was obviously surgically repaired at some point in her life before we adopted her. We don't know how it happened, but you don't lose half an ear by playing it safe!

Fetch is Rivers's favorite activity. She prefers outdoor fetch but will settle for indoor fetch if the weather is less than ideal. She will fetch until she injures herself (and we won't know she's injured herself until hours later when she is limping around the house). She can catch the ball in mid-air, return the ball and deposit it in front of the thrower, and run back for the next throw all without breaking stride. She watches the ball bounce to calculate when to jump. She makes fetch happen.

Snoozing near her people is another way Rivers likes to spend her time. She's not the quietest of sleepers, but her snoring is adorable. She twitches and kicks in her sleep.

Rivers will do almost anything for cheese, including lying still while I sand her nails and cut her hair. She even lets me brush her teeth every night, no treats required.

The name of this website is "Toon Rivers" because I discovered photo filters that turn photos in cartoons. I turned her into a toon and thought "toon Rivers!" and it reminded me of the Henry Mancini song "Moon River." So now I often sing "Toon Rivers" to the tune of "Moon River":

Toon Rivers, you fetch the ball in style. You'll fetch for miles and miles, all day...

Rivers is a very good girl and we feel very lucky to have found her.