This story has been updated with happy news from the family.
Serena Cukjati remembers crying over negative pregnancy tests, as she curled up with her beloved goldendoodle, Charlie.
“He would just lay with me,” Cukjati, 35, told TODAY.com in July. “There were so many low points in our journey to conceive, and he would pull me out of the darkness.”
These days, however, Cukjati is feeling joy. She and her husband, Jacob, are expecting identical twin boys this spring after undergoing IVF. And they owe it to Charlie.
"Charlie and our tennis ball throw really had some magic behind it!" Cukjati says.
In June, the couple, who live in Texas, learned they had three high-quality embryos: two female and one male.
“We were ecstatic. But all of the sudden we had this decision in front of us — do we transfer the boy or the girl? We just couldn’t decide,” Cukjati said at the time. “It’s a really cool perk, and a First World problem for sure, but it also felt like a burden. It was just too much.”
Then Cukjati’s mother had an idea: What if they left it up to Charlie?
“We both thought it was the perfect idea to let him pick,” Cukjati said. “So many times, dogs get the short end of the stick. They support us when we’re going through a hard time, but when we’re doing well, they’re not as needed. So this was a way of celebrating Charlie, and incorporating him into this new season of life.”
Cukjati shared on TikTok a video of herself throwing two tennis balls for Charlie. One ball was labeled “girl” while the other said “boy.”
“Bugs, are you ready for your big day?” Cukjati asked the dog. “Ready? This is your moment. OK, go!”
Charlie went back and forth before making his selection, which he dropped at his mom’s feet. Charlie’s sister, a Labrador retriever named Kiki, was also in the clip.
“She’s not into fetch so she didn’t really participate,” Cukjati explained, with a laugh. “We’ll involve her in other ways.
When Cukjati’s niece later came to visit, she asked to throw the two balls just to see what Charlie would do.
“He brought the same ball back,” Cukjati says. “We have both balls laying around here, but he’ll only play with that one ball. He’s fully invested.”