# 197 Umbreon ブラッキー Blacky
Official Sugimori artwork
Umbreon, my new favorite Pokemon by accident. Vaporeon was my favorite Eevee evolution from the original 150. Houndoom was my Dark Pokemon of choice in the original Johto days, so Umbreon never really got much notice from me. Fast forward to SoulSilver, which I received a few days before my birthday shortly after the game's release along with a brand new red DSiXL. I picked Chikorita as my starter and started playing my way through the game. My love of Pokemon was renewed since I had kind of moved away from it after Sapphire.
I played a couple of hours everyday and soon found myself receiving an Eevee from Bill on my actual birthday. I didn't know about soft-resetting so I ended up with a boy. He was surely destined for a Water Stone except that I had just missed the Pokathalon day when Water Stones could be found. I kept the Eevee on my team figuring I would start training him until I could get a Water Stone. But before that day could come, Eevee evolved into Umbreon one night.
In all my time of playing Pokemon games; Yellow, Silver and Sapphire, I had never focused on completing the PokeDex. I'd never really paid attention to the happiness methods of leveling up. When I found out that's how Umbreon and Espeon evolved I was so happy! I guess I would have a completely different favorite Pokemon if I had been playing during the day. My surprise Umbreon quickly proved to be my strongest team member and he would continue to surprise me. He was the first to find a shiny leaf and the first to get a completed crown. I couldn't help but feel a special connection with Umbreon. So when I found the pkmncollectors on livejournal, I knew I wanted to collect as much Umbreon merchandise as my wallet would allow!