Frankie Trostle was born on Memorial Day, May 26th, 2008.  She's a purebred Boston Terrier, in a rather unusual red, brindle and white color combination (Bostons are more commonly black and white).  She has one white paw, and one white toe on her back left paw.  Her ears alternately curl forward or backward, depending on her whimsy, and we find that absolutely freakin' ADORABLE.

Chris has been asking -- nay, BEGGING -- for a puppy since she met Jason.  For his part, Jason put up a heck of a good fight for more than two years. Good game, Jason.

Last July, Chris and Jason were at Fuji Sushi for dinner with Jason's Mom, Lynette, and two of his nieces, Makenzie and Tanner, who were visiting from West Virginia.  Every time Chris goes to Fuji, she insists on visiting the pet shop nextdoor so she can play with the puppies, and this day was no exception.  While Lynette and Jason finished up their dinner, Chris and the girls went to the pet store, where she found and fell in love with Frankie.

Chris snapped a picture of Frankie sleeping in her cage and sent it as an MMS to Jason's cell phone, with a message: "Take me home!"  By the time Jason and Lynette had made their way into Petland, Chris was already sitting with the girls in a booth playing with the puppy.  A sales associate was detailing all the information about Frankie -- she was their 2,000th puppy! -- and how to care for a Boston Terrier.  When Jason walked up to the booth, Chris showed him Frankie's blue eyes and said, "We have to get her; she's got your eyes!" 

Although this was the first time Jason had actually vaguely engaged the salesman in the discussion about puppy-training -- giving Chris a false sense of hope that he was actually considering letting her get the dog -- they went home puppyless.

Two days later, on Saturday, July 26th, Chris went to the bridal salon to pick up her wedding dress, and while she was out, swung by the pet shop.  About two hours later, she and Jason (who'd met her up at the pet store) were headed home... with their new puppy!!!!

Chris decided on her name: One look at those blue eyes, and she knew the dog had to be named after the most famous blue eyes in the world: Frank Sinatra.

Now, as our tiny puppy is growing up to be a grown-up dog, her eyes have turned hazel, closer to Chris's eyecolor (green)... but the name stays.

Still in the throes of housebreaking (but making progress), we've gradually gotten her to stop chewing on furniture (a plus), and we spend a lot of time playing tug-o'-war with the roughly 230,698,430,789 (ballpark figure) toys she has -- most of which came from her Grandmothers, Dorothy and Lynette. When Daddy's away, she sleeps in the bed with Mommy, and is VERY miffed when she gets booted back to her crate when Daddy returns. She loves people, especially kids, and is a little ball of energy; she can sprint like a gazelle. We're pretty sure that, if one puppy is this much of a handful, there are no more puppies and DEFINITELY no "Trostlettes" (a.k.a. baby Trostles) in our near future -- at least, not until this one's housebroken!