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Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, are adding to their family.
Pick your dropped crumpet off the floor. It’s not an impending birth announcement of a little prince or princess. The recently hitched couple have adopted a new puppy, a Labrador retriever.
The couple hasn’t released any official information yet — such as the name, sex and whether the dog is a rescue — and British royal observers have launched Puppy Watch, waiting for a sign of the pup, who is said to be living with Harry and Meghan at their Cotswolds country retreat.
Labrador retrievers are Britain’s most popular dog, and the Lab also ranks No. 1 on U.S. soil.
Lab puppies can be a handful, given their boundless energy and joy for life, but both Harry and Meghan are old hands when it comes to dogs. Meghan had two dogs pre-marriage and brought one, a rescue beagle named Guy, with her when she moved to England. Guy appears to be enjoying his new royal status. He was at Meghan’s side the morning of her wedding.
Harry, of course, grew up around his grandmum’s Pembroke Welsh corgis, a breed that Queen Elizabeth II took a fancy to way back when she was just a princess.
Harry’s dad, Prince Charles, and stepmom, Camilla, are fans of Jack Russell terriers and have two of the little nippers, both rescue dogs. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, is patron of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in London, which adopts out rescued pets.
Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, had a black lab as children, and Meghan had a lab mix that reportedly was too old to travel to her new country.
Harry and Meghan also seem to be following in Prince William’s footsteps. William and his wife, Kate, added a dog to their household, a cocker spaniel named Lupo, soon after their Westminster Abbey wedding.
Newlywed couples adopting pets is often a first sign that they’re preparing for parenthood. Pets seem to give people confidence that if they can successfully care for another living creature that is dependent on them for its survival, they can be good parents. Harry and Meghan have said they hope to have children “soon.”