Rarely has there been a time in my life when I was not the proud human parent of a dog or dogs. They bring me absolute joy and I can’t imagine my life without a dog in it. My parents started me off on this journey when they got me my first dog at the age of 18 months and I had that dog until I was 14. Dogs have come and gone out of my life over the years and a few have been extra special. In 2011, I lost my precious Westie, Rylee Jo Lynn, after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about her and I’m still shedding tears because I miss her adorable little face and spunky attitude. She was one of those dogs in my life that made an imprint on my soul. I was devastated when I finally had to let her go and getting another dog seemed like something I would never be able to do again. Alas, my husband thought the perfect solution was to get another dog quickly. Not ready to consider it, I put him off.

I had Rylee when Keith and I met so we were a package deal. I am very proud to say that Keith fell in love with her too. Months before we lost Rylee, we knew our time with her was limited. Knowing that in time we would want to get another dog, we didn’t know what kind of dog. While I loved my little Westie, I could not bear to get another one. Even now when I see one somewhere, all I can think about is Rylee. She was just so special that I could not replace her with another one. So our search was on. We started by thinking about what attributes we wanted in a dog. I wanted something small, but not too small. Something that could travel with us, something that I could cuddle with and something that would sit in my lap. We both wanted a dog with a good temperament, non aggressive, fun loving and gentle. Tall order huh?

That summer we went on vacation in Colorado. One of the days we were out looking at the sites, we visited Seven Falls. We took the elevator up to the top to look out over the area. When we arrived onto the observation deck there was a couple with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I had never seen one in real life. I walked over to the owners and asked if I could pet their dog. While I was petting the dog, the owner proceeded to tell me what wonderful dogs that Cavaliers are. Keith quickly noticed and he came over as well. A light bulb went off in our minds and in our hearts. Our dog research now included the Cavalier.

When we got home we started looking up the specifics of the King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. According to our research: The most beloved characteristic of Cavaliers is their sweet, kissable, and delightful temperament. They are playful, extremely patient and eager to please. Great with people of all ages and are the essential “lap dog”.  Sounds like the perfect breed for us! So by the time Rylee had passed, we had decided our next dog would be a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

About a month after Rylee’s passing, I told Keith I might be willing to consider getting another dog. Maybe it would help. Now where in the world would we find this dog? We knew no one in our town that had one. In fact, the only one I had ever seen outside of the AKC dog show on TV each year was that one in Colorado. Of course you can find anything on the Internet. We did some research and found a woman who bred them in Edmond. We went up and visited her and her dogs and just did not feel comfortable with her situation and I’ll leave it at that. We kept looking and found a breeder in Cleburne, Texas, three hours south of Ardmore. We contacted him and scheduled a visit to “look” only.

We arrived at Cavaliers of Castlemar and the breeder took us to the kennel where he had current puppies. It was a fantastic facility that was clean, had places to sit and visit and had no bad smells. Through my research I knew I wanted a little girl and that of the four colors of the Cavalier, she needed to be the tri-color [black, tan and white]. There were probably 10 puppies and a few of them were tri-color girls. The owner pointed them out to me and one took my heart. I picked her up and just held her. What a feeling. She cuddled up and kissed me and I was in love. I looked at Keith and he knew, I had found my new baby. However, my baby was only five weeks old and not ready to go home with us. That didn’t stop me from staking my claim on her and returning when she hit eight weeks.

As we sat there in the middle of all these puppies and one very special little girl, Keith asked the breeder his opinion about having two puppies at the same time. One of the things we had discovered in our research was that Cavaliers don’t like to be alone for long periods of time. We both worked so any dog we get would be alone all day while we were at work. Now the wheels in my head began to spin. Was Keith really considering two dogs? Two puppies? Has he lost his mind? Who is this man? I finally looked at him and said, “Are you really considering two dogs?” “Yes.” He replied. OMG!

Well I have my baby, now Keith needs to find his baby. He wanted a little boy and he wanted the Blenheim color [which is a white background with chestnut brown markings]. The Blenheim cavalier is the most popular color and the one that is seen the most often. Within just a few short minutes, Keith had lost his heart over an adorable little Blenheim boy, who was 10 days older than my little girl. Again, not ready to go home with us, but we staked our claim on him too. We left there with the follow up appointment to come back in three weeks and bring our babies home.

Well here we are three years later and I cannot tell you how ingrained into our lives these two little dogs are. Shawn and Maggie are our fur babies and we are just silly over them. They are indeed sweet and kissable with delightful temperaments and are lap dogs. I gravitate into the recliner every morning with my cup of coffee and within seconds I am covered in dogs, just the way I like it. If I sit down anywhere, they think they must sit with me and do.

They have very different personalities, which is fun. While Shawn is every bit the “whussy” dog, he is the alpha dog between the two. If you pick him up wrong, he cries but if something as dangerous as the “Roomba” is loose in your house, he’s on it. If Maggie walks out onto the patio and sends a warning bark, he runs out in his bad boy stance to see what’s up. Never fear Maggie, I’m here. He runs faster than the wind and he’s hilarious when he wants to play. He doesn’t want Maggie to get any attention that he is not getting and if you are petting her, he will put himself between her and you. Essentially getting her out of the way. He has a way of walking in and sweeping his backside that pushes Maggie out of the way. When I am not home, he gathers my shoes into a pile and lays with them all day. If he can’t get one of my shoes, then an article of clothing will do. Sometimes he decides that the shoe or the article of clothing needs to go out the dog door into the backyard. I have a running shoe out there right now that I need to go retrieve. But as I’m writing this, they are both sitting with me snoozing.

Now there’s my little angel, Maggie. She has the same little brown eyes that my Rylee Jo Lynn had and sometimes when I look into Maggie’s eyes, I see Rylee. I find comfort in that. When Maggie looks at you, she is looking into your very soul. Her favorite thing to do is sit in my lap and while I’m home recovering from this surgery, she is spending lots of time there. There is not an alpha bone in her body. Her favorite pose is lying flat on her back in the “pet my tummy” position. We find her there every time we go into our walk in closet, on her back, in the position. No one can resist it, especially me. But caution, if you are down there rubbing her tummy and Shawn sees it, he will come over, whip around and sit on her so you can’t rub her tummy any more. He’s not jealous at all. While Shawn likes to lord over my shoes, Maggie’s bad habit is paper shredding. If we leave the bathroom wastebasket within her reach, she will take out whatever tissues are in there and shred them. Or, if you leave paper towels or toilette paper within either of their reaches, they will take them outside and toilette paper your yard. I can’t tell you how many times that happened at our old house before I learned my lesson.

So my love of dogs continues. Someday I will have to say goodbye to Shawn and Maggie too, but I can’t think about that now. I am just going to enjoy every day and every experience with my two little angels. We just returned from our latest adventure where we all packed up and went to Little Rock for Christmas! Shawn and Maggie had a great time in Pug Nation visiting and playing with their oing to see their friends the Milligan pugs: Roxie, Conan and Zeppelin. Yes, it will be a five dog Christmas and I wouldn’t have it any other way.