By Jimmy Orr, Cowboy State Daily
jimmy@cowboystatedaily.com
WAMSUTTER — After losing their two Labrador retrievers last year, first lady Jennie Gordon told her husband that after the election, they should think about getting another dog.
Wyoming’s first family are self-described dog people, although they have owned cats, Gov. Mark Gordon said Thursday at an energy event in Wamsutter.
The arrival of a new four-legged family member came a little earlier than the first Tuesday of November.
The governor was attending an auction at the Wyoming Stock Growers annual Land Trust dinner in Saratoga in late August when a chocolate Lab came up for auction.
Gordon couldn’t resist, bid for the puppy and just like the primary election, came out on top.
He called the first lady on the way home and told her about the chocolate Lab puppy, and she came up with a logical name.
“It’s a chocolate Lab, how about Charlie?” Gordon said, recalling the conversation with his wife.
Jennie then thought Charlie needed a friend, the governor said.
Their recently departed Labs were inseparable, he said. So, the first lady started looking around.
She searched online and took to a little chocolate Lab with a yellow collar, but when she called the breeder, the pup was taken.
When the Gordons received some more photos of Charlie, Jennie saw the familiar-looking yellow-collared Lab, so she inquired about her.
Same dog. And the same dog was again available as the previous purchasers changed their minds.
In fact, that yellow-collared dog was Charlie’s sister. They named her Coco Chanel.
Charlie and Coco Chanel Gordon. They’ve always been together and always will.
Why Labs?
Both dogs moved into the Governor’s Mansion last week and slept in the Gordons bedroom without incident, the governor said.
“I can report there wasn’t any huge catastrophes,” Gordon said of the 9-week-old pups.
“There was a little whimpering at about 3 a.m., but that was probably me,” he said, laughing.
Whether they will stay in the governor’s bedroom to sleep is not known.
Probably, he said, “but no guarantees.”
