Puppy fever hits West Coast Eagles
The *West Coast Eagles * have puppy fever, with a handful of the team's top players welcoming new family members into the fold over the past few months.
Will Schofield *, *Mitch Brown *and *Chris Masten *all became engaged to their partners, *Alex Leahy *, *Shae Bolton *and *Emmi M * *oore * respectively, in the past year.
And for the couples, the natural progression was to add to their brood by bringing in "fur babies" Rubi, Ted and Cuban, who are all now six months old.
"We all got engaged, then we all got dogs," Moore told _AAA _ with a laugh.
Bolton added: "There is a bit of a dog trend going on, everyone just jumped on board real quick."
Admitting they love to spoil their pooches, the high-profile duos are supporting new *Perth * luxury pet accessories label Amelia McKenzie, which is designed in *WA * by local creative *Adele Sinclair *.
The label was born out of Sinclair's frustration at not being able to find fashionable bedding and blankets at an affordable price for her own dog, Tiger.
"Pets are part of the family, they have their own personalities, and we are all about giving pets as much style and class as their owners," she said.
Leahy agreed she didn't want Rubi, a French bulldog-lhasa apso cross, to be a "daggy" dog.
"They always have to have the cute accessories - that's half the fun, isn't it," she grinned.
"They are our fur babies so you need to have all the cute stuff."
Masten and Moore both admitted Cuban the Boston terrier had already laid claim to his own Amelia McKenzie bed and it was sometimes hard to coax him away from it.
Now the Eagles' bid for the premiership is over, the players have more time to spend with their beloved puppies during the off season.
For Brown and Bolton, that might mean finding more comical outfits to dress up their Hungarian vizsla.
"When we first got Ted I was looking on the internet and the most recent Google search came up. Shae had been looking up dog costumes," Brown said. "We have a little coat for him already; we do want him to look stylish."
The Amelia McKenzie range landed in City Farmers and Petbarn stores throughout Australia this week.
JESSIE PAPAIN
'Our fur
babies . . . need to have all the cute stuff.' Alex Leahy
