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The Sussexes’ rescue pooch has an African connection!
Back in 2018 the couple welcomed a black Labrador into their home but its name was never revealed – until now, that is.
In Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, the best-selling new book on the couple that has sent the cat among the pigeons in all sorts of ways, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand reveal that the pooch is called Pula. Which is, of course, the currency of Botswana and also means rain in Setswana – a precious gift from the heavens in the often parched land.
The southern African country has special meaning for the couple. Harry whisked Meghan away on a five-day romantic break to Botswana in August 2016 for what is believed to be only their third date.
In August 2017 they visited the country again and according to Finding Freedom, they secretly got engaged while in Botswana before making it public in November of that year.
Meghan did previously let slip that Pula is a female. During an engagement in October 2018 she revealed that people keep getting “her dog’s name wrong”.
The duchess has always been a big dog lover and is an avid supporter of animal rescue and the “adopt don’t shop” philosophy.
Her first rescue, Bogart, she brought home at the behest of Ellen DeGeneres.
In an interview with Best Health she recalled how she was in a dog shelter when the talk-show host and her wife, Portia de Rossi, came in and Ellen said to her, ‘You have to take that dog’.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m deciding.’ And she’s like, ‘Rescue the dog!’ It’s sort of like if Oprah tells you to do something. I’m sitting there holding him and she’s like ‘Have you thought of a name for him yet?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think I’d name him Bogart,’ and she’s like ‘You’re taking the dog home.’
“And so I brought him home. Because Ellen told me to.”
In 2015 she adopted a beagle named Guy. However, when she moved to the UK later be with Harry she chose to leave Bogart behind with “very good friends” due to his old age.
Her one-year-old son, Archie, shares his mother’s love for dogs and is, according to a source, “best friends” with the family pooches.
Earlier this year Meghan revealed she was sponsoring a kennel as part of her commitment to UK animal welfare charity, Mayhew.
"As an expression of my own commitment, I renewed my sponsorship of a dog kennel in the name of our son, Archie, to create an interim home for a pet in need,” she said.
Sources: people.com, hellomagazine.com, news24.com
