Who's the Grandaddy ?

Charlie

Yesterday we had visitors. Sheila and Vincent with what is now becoming an annual pilgrimage, brought Charlie to see us all. Charlie was our Cavalier stud dog and at just over five was examined by a cardiologist vet and a Grade 1 murmur was heard, so subtle that my GP vet struggled to hear it and admitted that if she did not know he had been examined and graded, could of missed it. So by the advice of the cardiologist vet, we stopped breeding from him, neutered him and found him a home to retire. Sheila's daughter who is Vincent's sister contacted me on their behalf just over three years ago about rehoming him, they had just lost their old Cavalier boy to Mitrial Valve Degeneration (MVD), so knew what they were taking on. My worry and any ones worry once a murmur is detected in the heart area indicating it may be MVD in Cavaliers is how quick will the onset be. Three years on and as you will see from the photos Charlie at eight years old is very well and no real change has been noted with his heart murmur and Sheila said that their vet says, "There is something there," and the fact it seems to of not changed I wonder if he has an innocent murmur, time will tell and as Sheila said, "We just put it to the back of our mind."
Sheila and Vincent could not be a better home for Charlie and the care and love they give him is only to evident on seeing him, seeing them with him and hearing them talk about him. One of the most important things they do, is keeping a careful eye on his weight as this as with most animals really helps with any health issues and just puts so much less strain on the body fuctioning, especially the heart.
Charlie is the Dad to Primrose and Smudge, so any one with a pup from these two girls, Charlie is your pups maternal Grandad, so that makes him the Grandad to the four pups we still have here at the moment of Smudge's and the Grandad to the litter Primrose is carrying.

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It was lovely yesterday to catch up with Sheila, Vincent and Charlie. The children and Vincent spent the first hour like a bunch of wild marauding wildebeast crashing through the home and at times, the children waiting for an unsupecting Vincent to pass by and launch themselves on his back, was reminiscent of Kato and Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies, Vincent had his work cut out, as unlike Inspector Clouseau, he had six Katos to contend with. Hope you have not got back ache this morning Vincent.
The children settled down and the dogs excepted Charlie into the fold and Charlie got to meet his old flames Dolly, Ysobel and Millie, and he then meet his Granchildren, who you would of thought would of not noticed another dog similar to the others living here, but we have to remember that a dogs world is an olfactory world and they could smell a different dog in the pack, so they did vocalise at him to start with, but once they saw the other dogs were not concerned about him, they soon were jumping all over him and it was him then trying to exit the situation.
Sheila and I had a chance to have a chat and with my husband home, we eventually sat down all together for supper, minus Bert who had to leave for cricket training, but was back in time before they left.
Sheila and Vincent came baring gifts and what a lovely thoughtful gift. When Sheila was here last time they visited she noticed Bert had some old Dandy and Beano comics which he had bought with his own money at a school fair, so she collected together old comic she had from her youth and when visiting car boot sales bought any comics she saw that she thought our children would like. When she gave them this gift we then had silence as they sorted through them and they then each found a place to sit and read them. Thanks Sheila and Vincent, the children this morning before school they were reading them and now after supper this evening they are sat still reading them. My gifts to Sheila and Vincent was a dozen of our free range eggs and a cartoon book called, "Off the leash", which I hope they will enjoy. They arrived around 5 pm and time flew and before we new it, it was nearly 11 pm when they departed. Always a pleasure to see them and now we are counting the days until they visit us again next year and all that's left to say now is, "Long live the Grandaddy !"