Puppies Making All the Right Moves at White House

First dog Millie’s half-dozen puppies made their first public appearance in the White House Rose Garden under the watchful eye of President and Mrs. Bush. “First time they’ve been out of that room” where they were delivered by Millie, a springer spaniel, two weeks ago, Bush told reporters as he nuzzled the only male in the litter. Mrs. Bush revealed that she wants to keep one of the puppies and that the President appeared to be weakening in his resolve against the move. “I haven’t won that battle yet,” she said. “She wants to keep one,” Bush noted with some reluctance. “(But) it might hurt Millie’s feelings.” Mrs. Bush, holding “Pickles,” who is going to granddaughter Marshall, said she was more concerned that Millie would “die of a broken heart” when the pups are taken away in the next few weeks. The puppies, for their part, appeared unimpressed by the crush of the press corps and their eyes were closed for most of the brief photo opportunity.

--Christy Andrews of Tabernacle, N.J., wasn’t much bigger than a puppy herself when she was born last October three months prematurely. She tipped the scales at 15 ounces, and doctors gave her little chance of survival. But the blue-eyed infant, dubbed “the miracle baby,” finally headed home this week, weighing a hefty 5 pounds and measuring 15 1/2 inches. At birth five months ago, Christy was so small that neonatologists at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, N.J,. rated her chance of survival at less than 5%. Now, said Dr. Margaret Fernandes D’Souza, director of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, Christy has about an 80% chance of living a normal life, although she will require constant attention for the next few years. Because of lung damage, she will have to breathe from an oxygen tank during the next year and must be fed intravenously during her first months at home. “I never stopped thinking she was going to make it,” said Christy’s jubilant father, Edward Andrews. “I just knew it.” Christy’s mother, Leslie, admitted to being less confident. “I was kind of prepared for her not to live. She was just skin and bones.”

--The Duchess of York said she named her 7-month-old daughter Beatrice because she likes old-fashioned names. “It is nice to be old-fashioned and keep to the old ways,” she told elderly hospital patients in Warrington, in northwest England. The duchess, formerly Sarah Ferguson, also told the patients: “You can call me Fergie,” a nickname her husband, Prince Andrew, is said to dislike.