Your Cavs as Family

when i was a kid my parents sent me to overnight one and two week long summer camps. They knew i would be homesick sometimes and they sent me funny cards with long letters in them, or, especially my dad did that. And he always sent a separate card from my dog. Inside the card, he wrote in fountain pen, "Love Teddy," and he dipped her paw in the red ink and made a big furry feathery pawprint on the card (she had a lot of cocker spaniel in her or maybe cavalier, that's why the pawprints were so feathery). those cards made me so happy. I still have them somewhere, i run across them now and then, bringing a smile. that was more than 45 years ago.

ps speaking of family, yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, was a big US family holiday. My plans included going to two different families' homes for two different thanksgiving dinners, because we have our traditional family dinner that we've had since i was a little kid, my aunt cooks it, and then, now, my family circle includes my daughter's boyfriend's family.

Joe dropped Lisa off at my place Wednesday night, then he went to his family's home to spend the night and help cooking the dinner the next day. On Thanksgiving, me and Lisa went to my mom's and got her, and then went to my aunt's where there were my aunt and uncle, two cousins, and their aunt and uncle on the unrelated side of the family. There were 5 people there in their 80s. the youngest person there was 45 except for Lisa who's 23.

Then we went to Joe's parents. There were a lot of people there, me, my mom, joe, lisa, joe's twin brother, their sister, their two parents, another guy who's relationship to the family i haven't yet identified, and Joe's paternal grandparents. Joe had brought his and Lisa's cavalier Belle along so she was there when we got there.

I fully intended to take Zack with me. None of those people had ever met Zack. I was going to be gone for probably more than 8 hours so i would want to bring him for that reason alone, but probably i could've left him that long and he and Fluffy the cat would've been ok and he probably wouldnt' have violated his housetraining habits.

but also i intended to bring him just because he's family. He belongs with the people.

Lisa really didn't want me to bring Zack, she tried hard to talk me out of it, she thought he would be distracting and disruptive, especially with the old people. She thought he would act wild and out of control. I hadn't worried about it. But compared to Belle, Zack is more active and energetic, and he can be a bit excitable and also kind of pushy about wanting to be affectionate with people. Yet i just assumed he'd be ok. Lisa's just not used to Zack's activity level. It's more than Belle, but it's not bad. But she got me kind of worried about it.

i brought him anyway, and he was fine, more than fine. I had his smaller travel crate and his retractable leash. He rode in the crate in the car. He hasn't been inside a crate for a long time, months and months, but he never complained.

At my aunt's house, he wasn't very pushy, he didn't try much to jump on people. He mainly wanted to sniff around. I kept him close to me on the leash and corrected him when he started to jump up. It just didn't become an issue.

We ate soon after we got there and i put him in his crate and gave him a rawhide, about 10 feet from where we were sitting, and he was quiet the whole time, he never made a peep, even though he wasn't always chewing the rawhide. He just accepted how it was. Of course.

I also fastened the leash to the crate handle and let him stay outside the crate, just atttached to it by the leash, with about 5 feet of leash. He just laid quietly on the floor. I wasn't sure how he was going to do with that but it was perfect.

After dinner we took him into the huge grassy (but not gated or secured) backyard, and he ran around happily, and then i let him off the leash and he had a great time. A couple of times, he headed for the side of the house where he could've gone to the front, but when i called him to come back, he came, he's getting very good on that. (the house was on a very quiet deadend street by the cul de sac). The people enjoyed him and he enjoyed them, everybody was photographing him.

Then we went to Joe's parents, which is a different situation, the only over 80 year old was my mom, lots of eary 20 year olds, and Belle, and Joe's parents' two dogs, Lady and Jubilee, who are large mixed dogs. Zack and Belle played and growled and rolled around the whole time like they always do.

Zack is a great family member. He was like, OK, when in rome.....whatever... People enjoyed him but at the same time, he wasn't the center of attention, he wasn't distracting or demanding attention.

Do others here take their dog babies with them to family social gatherings?

He is my family

I am obnoxiously able to bring Tucker's name into conversations. Last Christmas I included a snapshot of Tucker in each card I mailed out. I am completely and totally one of those "dog people". It has come as something of a surprise to me. I think I get on the nerves of some of my close friends, and family who cannot understand my attachment. They do not understand my unwillingness to leave Tucker alone while I go out to socialize. I've hired my teenage niece to babysit Tucker if I am going to be out for more than 3 hours at a time. I brought him with me to my sister's house for a few family gatherings. But the last two times, Tucker lifted his leg in her house and once weed on her new carpet. (Tucker does not do this at home, at all.) I think he may have been scent marking, my sister has a dog, that she typically confines to a bedroom when she has company. Tucker is a bit rambunctious, and does not sit quietly on my lap, but instead runs around the house with the rest of the kids. Anyway, I could care less if I'm annoying my family. I'm 48 yrs old, have been a wonderful aunt, to my 12 nieces and nephews, I have no children, and Tucker is my little boy. I suspect my family rolls their eyes a bit over my attachment. I know my mother gets a bit put out, that whenever I go to pick her up to take her out shopping, etc, I most always have Tucker along for the ride. I feel like my devotion to Tucker is perceived as an indulgence. I don't care. I make no excuses for my attachment. Tucker has enriched my life.

Our friends had a cav female called Nelly, and then there was our boy Jake and from puppys they were bf and gf... Each year at x-mas a letter would arrive for him, in it a card with the front picture of Nelly dressed up in some rediculous outfit hahaha, inside a message for him from her, it was always so funny :lol: