Meet Morgan A beautiful black & white girl that was truly "home grown"

An October 2005 photo of Morgan

Morgan is a very special dog...  for several reasons.  After we retired from breeding Cockers in 2010, she was the only one of our dogs we did not place in a new home.  She's truly a "keeper"!  She was also the first pup that we ever kept from one of our litters.  She was the pick of the litter from our August 2002 litter out of our girl, Abby.  That's the litter you may have seen in that great "bench photo", which has become something of a famous picture here on our web site:

Here's Morgan (3rd from the left) with all of her siblings.  Aren't they a great looking bunch?!?
This picture was taken when they were 8 weeks old, on the day before the first one went to a new home.
Be sure to check out other pictures of Morgan and her siblings in our Puppy Picture Hall Of Fame.

Morgan's registered name is "Zim's Good Morgan Starshine".  If you're old enough to remember the 1969 Broadway musical "Hair", you may recall the song (Good Morning Starshine) which we based her name on. 

Morgan has the good looks of her mother, and her father's no slouch either!  He's a champion show dog.

Morgan is a very well behaved girl who gets along well with all of our dogs and who loves to spend as much time as possible inside the house being part of the family.

One of the things that we really like about Morgan is that she practically potty trained herself!  Except for when she was a very small puppy, we have never had a potty accident inside the house with Morgan.  Because she can be trusted completely in this manner, Morgan gets to spend a lot more time in the house than some of our other dogs...  she even sometimes gets to sleep on our bed at night.

As a pup, Morgan displayed behavior that was pretty typical for a puppy her age...  she liked to chew everything!  More than once we saw her playing tug-o-war with her mother's ear.  Luckily, Abby was very patient with her when Morgan was a puppy.  Now, of course, Morgan is a mature lady and never bothers anyone.

Morgan turned two years old in August of 2004, and also passed her tests for genetic hip and eye problems.  We waited a while before breeding her... putting her together with a red & white champion show dog in May of 2005, and Morgan gave birth to her first litter of puppies on July 30, 2005.
 

Here's a look at Morgan and a few of the puppies in her first litter.
She had seven boys, and one girl...  and six of them were red & whites!

Here's a look at Morgan's puppies a little older.
Notice that the one on the far right is a tri color... 
the first we've ever had in one of our litters!

This is the father of Morgan's first litter of puppies.
He's a champion show dog from one of the country's most respected Cocker breeders.
His name is Champion San Jo's Hot Signature, but everyone calls him "Jake".

In May of 2007, Morgan had her second litter of puppies.
The father of this litter is named Merlin, so we always referred
to Morgan & Merlin's pups as the M&Ms

There were nine puppies in this litter, making Morgan the mother of 17 pups total over her two litters

All nine pups of the pups in Morgan's second litter, at four weeks old
click here for a 1280x960 pixel version of this photo, suitable for use as your computer desktop wallpaper

One of the best pictures I've ever taken was of two of the pups from Morgan's second litter:

To see more pictures of Morgan's second litter of puppies, click here

After Morgan's second litter, we made the decision to spay her and retire her from our breeding program.  We based our decision on the fact that Morgan had a large number of puppies in both litters, which put a huge strain on Morgan's system.  It was hard on her.  So, after seeing her have a little trouble providing the nutrition for both of her litters, we decided that she had done enough for our breeding program and that it was time to retire her.

It might surprise you to learn that Morgan's favorite playmate is not a dog or a human...  it's a cat.  Morgan grew up being around our daughter's cat, Socks.  Socks is very friendly (and de-clawed) so we never worried about the two of them being together.  We introduced them to each other at a very young age...  Morgan was three weeks old in the picture on the right, but they actually met well before that.  Socks lives with our daughter in Arizona now, so we got Morgan a new cat to hang out with.  His name is Mo.

When Morgan gets let in to the house, all she is interested in is locating Mo.  When she finally finds her, Morgan's tail goes a mile a minute!  Morgan is normally a VERY calm dog...  but put her in the same room with any cat and she turns in to this excited puppy with a tail wagging at top speed!
 

On the left, Morgan at four and a half months...  just hanging out with her old buddy, Socks.  What they would do together would depend on Socks' mood and energy levels.  Socks usually set the tone for the play sessions.  If Socks was in a playful mood, he would start running and Morgan will follow at high speed.  At first glance you might think that they didn't like each other.  But any time Socks tired of being chased, he could just stop in his tracks and Morgan wouldn't do anything but wag her tail.  Other times Socks would get on top of something and playfully paw at Morgan.  If they were tired after too much playing, they would just sit next to each other and rest.
 

Morgan Picture Gallery

Here are some of the best pictures I've taken of Morgan:

A March 2008 picture of Morgan
I trimmed her ears differently than I normally do, to emphasize the white fur on that left ear

A June 2006 photo of Morgan, showing the way I normally minimize that white fur on the left ear

August 2003 -- Morgan at one year old

Morgan at five months old.
Click here for a larger version of this photo,
suitable for use as your desktop background

Morgan at one month old.
Compare the markings near the nose to the pictures of her as an adult.
You will see that a dog's markings can change a lot with time.
In fact, if you compare this picture to the "bench shot"
you can see how much they can change in just one month.

Morgan's Grandfather
Champion My Ida Ho Way To Go
"Waylon"

An April 2005 photo of Morgan

There is a LOT more to this web site than just this page!
Please explore the rest of the site by viewing our table of contents,
or by clicking on one of the quick links below.

All About Our Cockers       Meet Jim Zim        Contact Jim Zim