Dogs Are More than Dogs – They’re Family!

If you know our family at all, you will know that our dogs are not just dogs – they are FAMILY. Our cat too (but he thinks he’s a dog, which is another blog post).  We love our pups just as much as if they were another sibling! For those of you who haven’t seen them before, here are our fur babies, Sunny, a eleven-year-old pit bull mix, and Ollie, a six-year-old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel who is full of sass and spunk, despite having been diagnosed with beginning stages MVD.  

We talk about our dogs a lot, but I don’t often talk about WHY I got a dog to begin with.  I sometimes joke and call Sunny my “divorce dog”. But it’s kind of true – I rescued Sunny a few months after I got a divorce. I wanted a dog because I was afraid and nervous to stay at home alone at night.  Little did I know that I rescued the WORST guard dog ever.  But that wasn’t really what I was missing – it was my kids and the companionship, and in that way, it was really Sunny that rescued me.  We decided to add a second dog so that Sunny would have someone to play with – thus came Ollie!

Ollie is excitable as Sunny is chill, but he’s such a GREAT dog for my kids.  He is always happy and his attitude is that life ROCKS 24-7 and everything is something to be excited for.  For me, working in a very stressful job, sometimes it’s really cool to have all of that positivity! And Ollie is always willing to give me a snuggle when I’m feeling down and out.  The kids too – he’s a GREAT listener. 

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this with their dogs, but Ollie has been SUPER clingy since we have all been home for quarantine. He’s always been a little shadow, but now he totally spazzes when someone is going somewhere and he doesn’t get to tag along.  

These guys bring SO much joy into our lives on a daily basis – they are a huge part of our lives and family, and I just can’t imagine the huge hole that would be left in our lives if we didn’t have Sunny and Ollie in it! Not to be a downer, but it’s something that’s been on my mind as Sunny ages, and we were devastated to learn that Ollie has MVD.

MVD, or mitral valve disease, is something that affects a very large number of King Charles Cavalier Spaniels – over 50% of dogs Ollie’s age have it. Many eventually pass away from it, but we are hoping since we caught it early and have him on heart medication that Ollie will progress slowly and have many happy years left with us. We’ll be tracking his progress.

It’s still a new diagnosis for us, so if any of you have hints or management tips, would love to hear them. But for now, hug you puppies tight, and give them extra (healthy) treats!