Cat person with a dog?

The British royals seem to have had some difficulty with their corgis in recent years. The corgis I've met have been rather, err, strong-minded and very territorial. Not dogs to leave unsupervised, but then I wouldn't leave any dog with someone under about 10 years of age.

I am not around that many small kids myself, so I'm not the right person to make a blanket statement about that. I am watchful of Pacco's territoriality in general.

I posted a Corgi mix in one of the earlier pages on this thread w/our cat.

i have to admit... she HATES kids. She is like hoodini and can get out of any leash no matter HOW tight it is or the grip you have. She has also nipped at them.

with that said, otherwise.... she is the most sensitive and most emotional dog ever. She was a rescue AND abused badly, which is why she is probably such a big baby. She NEVER leaves your side and always has your head on your lap the second someone screams (not at her).

I don't like doggie odor and she is stinky pretty fast (because she likes it outside so much). My in-laws also clip her which helps so much with the shedding and smell. She is without a doubt ...the mommy of all of our dogs. She ALWAYS polices them and makes them stop running when they get out of line.

Corgi was my first pick for a dog. I've always fallen in love with every Corgi I met.

I adore my Pacco...

hmm, he doesn't usually smell bad. I have a poor sense of smell but my business partner has a very effective one and says he doesn't ever have that doggy smell.

ahem, have any of you tried the newish collars that work on a different principle, the ones that are like mere ribbons, that don't involve any jerking? I forget the term for them.

Pacco is not always at my side, but he is always positioned in relation to me. That might be facing outward to ward off wolves from afar. Or'll he'll face outward perpendicular to a group of us...

I have a 5 o'clock appt to have ALL FIVE dogs groomed. Boy, what a task for them!!! So she won't have a doggie smell for long!

I normally wouldn't take 4 of the dogs because they're easy to groom, but I felt horrible since 1 of them was going. This one (not my dog) is touchy when you clean her eyeboogers, so I rather them deal with it.

Wow, such a lot of adorable pets here!

Our local shelter does ask these questions about the home the pet is going to, and you must provide proof of Rabies vaccines if you already have pets. But they don't visit the home & don't meet the pets/people living there.

That said, in this rural county in Florida, where there are relatively few people, over 5,000 cats and dogs are put to death at our shelter every year. Can you believe it? This is only one county, not a huge part of Florida (which has 67 counties)!

My husband used to volunteer at this shelter, and watched front-end loaders full of dog & cat corpses dumping them into the landfill. Talk about heart-breaking! Even puppies & kittens who were adoptable were put to death, and still are, every week.

Our local shelter (owned by county government) kills pet animals quickly, sometimes within 7 days of receipt....they have killed owned pets when the owners did not pick them up within 7 days. Sure, I'd check the shelter within a day of losing a pet, but gosh, imagine how you'd feel knowing they'd killed your dog or cat?

We've just opened a no-kill shelter funded privately, so many strays are now going there. This is the only other shelter in the county, opened less than a year ago. The organization is called Humanitarians of Florida....they also have excellent spay/neuter programs & flea control for cheap. We get the pets' rabies shots there: Only $6.00 per pet and they do the shot. A wonderful bunch of people!

In Sarasota county (Florida), the local Humane Society had so many donations, they kept even biting dogs for over a year before killing. That was a MUCH more wealthy county than this one. They also insisted the present pets be brought to the shelter to meet the new pet.

Anyway, last time I browsed our local shelter, there were at least 100, maybe 150 adoptable cats & dogs waiting for homes. Big, little, purebreds, mixes, just about any kind of critter you could want. I also saw at least five pititably skinny horses and a whole flock of geese. If you can save even one, that would be wonderful!

P.S. - Boris Kitten, most wonderful cat ever, is from this very same shelter (the county one).

Does anyone know how to contact Mrs. Cavfancier? We're seriously considering Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and I'd like to ask her a few questions. They seem perfect for us.

We visited a breeder this past weekend and were very impressed with the dogs.

You can pm her and give her your email, eva...
I think her screen name is Mrs. Buttercup Cavfancier, but there might be a parenthesis in there somewhere.

Lemme know if you can't track Buttercup down, Eva. I can email her from home tonight.

Would you do that, ehBeth? I don't think she can get "pm"s from here, and she hasn't been on A2K much lately. Probably very busy.

She can respond to this thread, or if she prefers to e-mail me directly, I'll "pm" my address to you and you can forward it to her, okay?

Let me add my voice to shewolf's for rescued greyhounds. These have been racers which have been retired. The last figure I heard for retired greyhounds is 50,000 a year are killed. Solveig and I had two Ben and Zoe. The cat was Nikki a seal point Siamese. They got along fine from day one. One of the interesting things about racing greyhounds is you usually have to teach them to walk up and down stairs. They've never done it. Going down is harder for them.

I love the greyhound temperament, bobsmyth, but they're too large for our house, and besides, we have three sets of stairs!

The Cavaliers seem like they'd be perfect for us. They're not high energy, not very barky, good for indoors (we have a very small yard), great companions, and submissive around other pets (we have two indoor cats as well.) And they really are beautiful dogs.

I have back problems and am not allowed to lift more than 10-15 lbs., so that would also fit.

ehBeth -- Did you remember to e-mail Mrs. Cav for me? I haven't heard anything.

Eva, I hadn't seen your request til just now. Will send the note when I get home.

Thanks, Beth!

I'm here
Hi Eva,

I got your message via the messenger (beth ) and I'm here to help answer your questions about the best dogs in the world!! (She says unabashedly )

I read your starting post on this thread, though, and I'm going to overlook the fact that you said dogs were smelly and dumb, and figure that somehow someone (probably a wee spaniel with big brown eyes) has brought you over to the dark side...

Cavaliers are fearless (unless they've been attacked like my little guy was recently, but he's building back his courage, slowly and surely), they love kids, other animals, are extremely curious, and will try to steal your ice cream from the cone. But when they look at you, you will probably quite willingly surrender the ice cream... They do bark. Wee Cav barks when there are other dogs on TV, and when he hears the jingle of a collar outside the door, but those are the only times. Like all barking dogs, you have to train them so that they know when barking is appropriate, and when it is not.

Cavaliers, like all spaniels, love to eat. They cannot be free-fed. The best thing to do is set a breakfast and dinner time (they don't really need a lunch time, but if those brown eyes make you feel really guilty, you can give them a little something at noon).

Cavaliers are easily distracted. It is very difficult to train them to remain off lead and by your side. Extend-a-leads are the best thing for them once they have been trained, but even then, you should never, never ever, never ever EVER take them off lead, unless the place where they're running around is fenced in or is about 10 acres of free roaming space away from busy streets.

Common health problems that you may encouter include mitral valve disorder (heart murmurs), keratitis and other eye problems, ear problems (common to all droopy-eared dogs). If you go to the AKC website and search for "Cavalier King Charles Spaniels", it will give you a list of the common health problems. Wee Cav has a minor heart murmur, mild keratitis, and a corn allergy. But he has a good vet, and he will probably live to a very ripe and healthy age of 14, the average life span for a Cavalier.

These are dogs that feel more secure when the pack is altogether. They also accept leadership freely from their human companions, in that, unlike some larger breeds like German Shepherds, Mastiffs, and the like, who respond best to one distinct alpha leader in the house, Cavaliers will listen to everyone as their leader, though they do go through several phases of "testing", such as pretending not to hear you unless you have food, trying tricks to get you to give them treats, and pushing the limits of a set rule. Wee Cav does this muffled grunt when he gets the "be quiet" command, if he's not finished saying what he wants to say. It's very cute, and it's really hard to keep firm when he does that. We used to go off to the other room and laugh about it behind his back.

If you have any other questions about Cavaliers that you need answering, Eva, don't hesitate to PM me or respond. I would of course recommend that you adopt your Cavalier from either a reputable breeder or a reputable rescue home (they have Cavalier rescue too!). Wee Cav has been an amazing comfort to me during this time; he's not my dog, he's my kid. I'm a single mom now...

Loving this thread. Dys and I got a dog from the pound about six weeks ago. She is a Jack Russell/ Corgi mix. Like Buttercup, we feel she is our baby.

I love mutts from the pound and think they are more likely to be more adaptable and healthier (one vet mentioned hybrid vigor in describing the good health of most mutts).

Whatever the decision, the pup is going to have a wonderful home with the Eva family. That's what really matters.

Thanks for all the info, Buttercup! Can I ask...how did you find your dog? Did you know a breeder near you, or did you find a breeder online and have him shipped to you?

We did find a breeder about two hours away and visited them about a week ago. It was the first time we'd actually seen Cavaliers in person, and they let us spend about a half hour with them. What beautiful dogs they are! (You're right about the eyes.)

When we first had the idea of getting a dog, Cav and I wanted to get an Irish terrier. Then, we did a lot of research online, and figured that this wouldn't be the best dog for our lifestyle. We were sedentary. Irish terriers, like all terriers, are not. Then we saw a picture of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel on the cover of a magazine called Dogs In Canada. We did some research on the breed, and contacted a breeder listed in the special section of the magazine. It turns out that the breeder we contacted was, at the time, the editor of Dogs In Canada. We spoke with the breeder on the phone, and went over to their home and met with the Cavaliers. It was much the same process as that for adopting a child. The breeders spoke with us, assessed our personalities, assessed how we reacted to the dogs, and how the dogs reacted to us. At the end of the interview, they said they would call us and let us know whether or not there would be a puppy available for us in the near future, as one of their bitches (can I use that word in its appropriate context here? If it gets ***d out, then I'll just say one of their female dogs) was pregnant.

We did get a call later that week, saying that if Millie (the pregnant one) ended up having 4 puppies, we would get one. Millie only had 3. But the breeders had liked us so much, that they called around to other Cavalier breeders and asked if anyone had puppies available. They found a breeder in Brampton (about 40 minutes away from where we live) who had puppies available. We trucked on up to Brampton, and met with the breeder there. We went through the same process as before -- she interviewed us, assessed our personalities, assessed how we reacted with the dogs, and how the dogs reacted with us.

I don't know if Cav told the rest of the story from here, and if he did, my apologies for repeating it, but it's a good story and I'd like to share it here (my posts are becoming monolithic, I realise ). When we went down the hall to see the puppies, they were in a separate room with a baby gate blocking the door, so they could roam and be free and poop on the newspapers around the room. We said hello, and the breeder pointed out which puppies were available (there were 5, I think) -- including a tricolour girl, a blenheim boy and a blenheim clown-faced boy that she had obtained because she had owned half a litter with someone. So we left the room, and returned to the living room for the rest of our interview. Suddenly, we heard something that sounded like a baby screaming, and then a bunch of puppies crying loudly and barking. The breeder went white, and ran down the hall. We followed. The breeder called for her husband. Apparently, the little clown-faced spaniel wanted to know where we went, so he stuck his head through the bars of the baby gate to follow us. Then, he tried to get his head out. It was stuck. He screamed, the other puppies panicked. The breeder's husband got the little guy out, and the breeder carried the little guy to the living room. She put him on my lap and told me how to pat him to calm him down. He fell asleep there, and we fell in love with him. How could we help it? He was exactly like us -- putting his feet forward without thinking, and then realising how much trouble you're in for doing that. When we left her place, she said that we had the choice of which one we wanted, and to think about it and call her. As soon as we got home, we made the call. And three weeks later, we brought home the very wee Cav.

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to buy puppies or any pets via mail order. You don't know where they're coming from, what conditions they were raised in, what their breeders and parents were like, the medical history of the animal, etc. Even if you get a puppy from a pound, the pound has some history of the animal, usually. It's always best to see the animals in person before you buy. And never, never ever, never ever EVER buy puppies from a pet store, unless you're rescuing them from their cruel confinements. It's just a bad idea overall.

Hope that helps!