Angus, Our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

The history of this charming and beautiful breed dog can be traced back to the 15th century. At that time, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was the most favorite kind of dog for the Kings and Queens in England. It was common for the royalties and their families to have these dogs as a member of the family. Even painters like Tizian, Gainsborough, Reynolds and some others were including Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in their paintings.

Some people believed that the ancestors of Spaniels came from Spain but it was King Charles 11(Stuarts Regency 1603-1714) who had given this name.

4 Types of Cavalier King Charles Spaniel:

1. Blenheim---------- red and white color ( first breeded in Blenheim Castle, England)
2. Ruby- --------------a red brown color
3. Black and Tan----black and brown color
4. Tricolor------------ black, white and brown

Characteristics:

1. Friendly
2. Intelligent
3. Affectionate
4. Devoted
5. Playful
6. Cheerful

It was four years ago when my husband told me, he wanted to have a dog as a Christmas present for himself. I was at first speechless specially when he told me how much it costs. I told him what disadvantages he had to think about. He had to go out more often as he wanted to for the dog has to do his business outside the house and I´ll not be the one who will do it. He said it´s his dog so he´ll do it. Besides that he has the reason to go out of the house and walk with the dog and that he will be forced to have an exercise.

Said and done.We ordered our pet from the breeder of Cavalier at Unicorncastle here in Germany. Asterix was his name by the breeder but we changed him to Angus. Angus, that´s the royalty name I choose for him before we drove to the house of the breeder to collect the dog we like. Angus has three siblings, Arielle, Aladin and Attila. They were born on January 03, 2007. There were other people in the breeders house, like us to collect their coming pet. We were sitting in the living room, Angus on my lap. He was so cute and so lovely that I immediately fell in love with him. He is a Blenheim and he has a brown heart form on his forehead. We brought him home with his Passport, vaccination paper, an album with photos as a puppy with his siblings and parents and other important papers.

Everything was prepared at home for Angus. His bed, food and a place where he can pee for he was not trained yet.. It was like having a new baby at home. The difference was, it was my husband who was taking care and training him to make his business outside the house. The first night at home, Angus was crying. I did not know what to do so I woke my husband up. My husband got up and carried him on his lap until he was quiet, stayed and slept with Angus in that room. Very caring I should say.

A few days and weeks later, he got used to us. He walked around and inspected our flat. He was and still is very playful and curious of everything. He loved to play with me and running around our flat. He has found out that it´s cosy for him to sit on my lap for I automatically massage his head. One night when my husband had to go away for an hour or two, I was in our living room watching our telly when suddenly Angus was running around moaning. He was looking for my husband. For the first time I saw him jumping from our couch to our window sill, which is at least 1 meter high, now sobbing. He was looking stressfully at every person who passed our house. At first I did not understand what´s going on. But then I realised Angus was crying for his boss was not at home. He stayed there in our windowsill until my husband came back.

The coming of Angus into our lives was not only a change for himself but also a change for me for I did not have any idea how to treat a dog. My parents have always dogs in the Philippines but we treated them differently than the people here in Europe. The dogs in my home country don´t have any extra food to eat. They eat the leftovers of the family they are in, if they have. They are sometimes maltreated if not eaten by the Filipinos. Maybe, It´s different nowadays since I left my home country 30 years ago. But still, I find that eating meat dog horrible.

As times went by, I learned a lot in taking care of our pet. Angus is very devoted to us especially to my husband. It bothered him much when his boss is gone for an hour. When I went away for work or shopping, it did not bother him when and if I´m coming home but he is happy and give me a sign of "up here" when I came back. He looked at the door when he heard the music of our Tageschau (8 o´clock news in German TV) and waiting for me to come in and greated me with a smile and jumped towards me.

When we transferred to Ireland, Angus was with us. He was 12 hours inside our car in the ferry going to England for he was not allowed to stay in our cabin and 3 hours in our car inside Irish ferry. A steward who was encharged of the cars parking deck was seeing him every now and then. He was so brave. Imagine the noise of the ships´engine! He was always with us, travelling to amazing landscapes in Ireland, driving an hour just to go shopping in Ballina or in Castlebar. Even to collect me from work...

Angus is a quiet dog, he seldom barks even when other dogs are barking towards him. He just ignores them. Just the way he was trained by my hubby. One thing that Angus can not resist...The smell of fried chicken. He loves it very much that he kept on sniffing near the oven. He knows. He´ll be having a good dinner...He loves tomatoes and cucumber, too.

Summer time in Ireland was good for him. I used to stroll with him on the beach and sometimes collecting wild berries which were growing beside the street of Carne Rock church. He loves sunbathing and that is weird for me for I have not heard of any dog sunbathing. At wintertime, he was a great help to me when it was so freezing cold that I let him sit on my lap to keep us both warm. At nighttime, he was allowed to sleep in his box in the living room, near the open fire. Angus was also freezing.

Life without Angus

Life without Angus is unthinkable for us now. He is like our child that I sometimes mistakeably called him with the name of my son. Life without us is also a terrible thing for him. It will be a great loss of both sides.