Posted: February 26, 2009, 5 a.m. EST
It looks like the first family has finally made some important decisions regarding the future first dog.
And the winner is? A Portuguese Water Dog rescue, which Michelle Obama says they will pick out sometime in April, when the family returns from a vacation over spring break.
“Temperamentally they’re supposed to be pretty good,” Michelle told People. “From the size perspective, they’re sort of middle of the road – it’s not small, but it’s not a huge dog. And the folks that we know who own them have raved about them. So that’s where we’re leaning.”
The Obama girls, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, lobbied their parents like seasoned D.C. insiders when it came to closing the deal.
“So Sasha says, ‘April 1st.’ I said, ‘April.’ She says, ‘April 1st.’ It’s, like, April!,” Michelle says. “Got to do it after spring break. You can’t get a new dog and then go away for a week.”
The girls also had some clear-cut ideas about names.
“Oh, the names are really bad. I don’t even want to mention it, because there are names floating around and they’re bad,” Obama laughs. “You listen and you go – like, I think, Frank was one of them. Frank! Moose was another one of them. Moose. I said, well, what if the dog isn’t a moose? Moose. I’m like, no, come on, let’s work with the names a little bit.”