About Us

We are a small, family run, Hobby Farm in Merrifield, MN. We got started in 2014 with a desire to move out to the country to be more self-sufficient. We sold our house in town and bought a camper trailer to live in. We lived in that with 4 kids and 2 cats while we cleared our land and started building our house ourselves! In 2015 when we were more settled we decided we needed a proper country and family dog (Torii). After doing some research on breeds we decided the Labrador retriever was the breed for us! In 2018 we discovered the Fox Red Labrador- we were hooked! We decided to get Cody to be a companion for Torii! She was ecstatic to have another dog around to play with! We decided to leave Cody intact with the idea of possibly breeding in the future!

In 2018 we also added two more cats to our family! We were driving home from The Cities on the 4th of July and spotted two scared little kittens on the side of the highway. We turned around and were able to safely rescue them. We had every intention of bringing them to a shelter, but the kids were immediately attached and convinced us to keep them! The more the merrier, right?! Ha! Getting a pair of kittens together though was quite inspiring. I realized at that point how bonded cats can be. Michael and Mookie are always together! It has been very heartwarming watching them grow up together!

In 2020 during times we finally built the large garden of our dreams. Living in the country means needing an 8 foot tall fence to keep the deer out! After years of talking about it we also decided to take the jump into raising chickens and ducks so that we’d have a reliable source of eggs! We love our birds so much! The kids even like to occasionally bring one or two into the house to hang out - it makes for good chaotic fun!

We had been keeping an eye out for a Fox Red Female to mate with our Cody for a while. Incidentally an old friend of mine from high school had a litter of puppies! We picked out our Jackie from her! We love Jackie’s petite size and lap dog personality! Later watching her become a mom was a huge joy for our family! After that first litter we were hooked and knew we definitely wanted to continue breeding! We decided to look for a second female puppy to eventually breed as well. As we were casually looking, I saw a post in a Facebook group about someone rehoming a 2-year-old female Labrador. Those kinds of posts always make me sad and even sadder because she looked so much like our Jackie. I connected with the person and learned more about her. She was an AKC registered Labrador and had never been spayed. We decided this might be the perfect fit! We would get our second dog for breeding while being able to give her a forever loving home! We had Goldie go through all the health and DNA testing too. When she was all clear we let her have puppies with Cody! She did a great job with them! For us this is the perfect size breeding program. We never intend to get so big that we would require an outdoor facility. We believe puppies do best when raised right in the home with constant love and care!

We decided to get into breeding Bengals shortly after we decided to breed Labradors. As long-time cat owners it just seemed to also be a good fit for our family! We’ve found so much joy in the cats we have had that raising them seemed like a natural extension. We choose Bengals because we love their different coat color and patterns and that their coat is so short and sleek! Because of this they are more hypoallergenic! Some people that are allergic to regular cats are not allergic to Bengals! We love all cats, but really like that the Bengals don’t shed as much making them easier to have around!

How We Chose our Names

Before we even decided to start a business out of our little Hobby farm, I thought it would be fun to have a name for our garden and apple orchard. One of the things we really loved about moving out to the country was how many more stars you can see in the sky! We love sitting outside on a nice summer night to star gaze! That is how we became Starry Night Farm! On that same vein we also love looking at the moon! When looking at the moon, I frequently think of the song, Moonshadow, by Cat Stevens, so that is how we came up with Moonshadow Labradors! After picking those two names we wanted the name for the Bengals to be in the same theme. Because the moon is so beautiful and Bella Luna rolls of the tongue so nicely, we decided to use that! Bella Luna is Italian for Beautiful moon and Gatte is the Italian word for cats, so that is how we became Bella Luna Gatte! Plus, it’s a nice way to incorporate my Italian ancestry into the name! Oh and of course there is a song called Bella Luna, by Jason Marz which I love as well!

Thanks for Reading! :)