Wallis's story is not quite so tragic as Tibby's. We had a client at one of the vets I worked for who raised CKCS's and Irish Wolfhounds (seems most breeders raised a big and a small dog). She knew how I loved the Cavaliers and any time she brought a litter in would dump them in my lap to play while everyone else worked.
I also worked part-time for a veterinary opthamalogist and ran into this breeder there one day. She had this 5-week-old puppy with her and of course handed her to me imediately. The puppy had a problem with her eye and the breeder didn't know if it was an injury that the mother had caused or a birth defect.
It turned out to be a birth defect - micro-opthalmia, or small eye. She has an eye, it is just tiny and she doesnt' have much vision in it. I was helping Betty carry her out to a car and said "I bet somebody is gonna get a good deal on this one." She turned and looked at me and said "Yeah, like free. Do you want her?"
The hardest part was waiting until she was old enough to leave her mother. As with most breeders, they don't want them to leave the mother until they are at least eight weeks old. So it was a COLD December day when we drove to her house to pick up the puppy. I was in hog heaven - Cavaliers everywhere!
She registered her puppies with the CKCS Club and wanted the entire litter to have names that started with "W". Now,I realized both then and now that whatever 'registered' name I gave her was not what I had to call her but after trying a few other W names on her (Winnie? Wanda?) I came upon Wallis. I've always read a lot about Wallis Simpson and the way Edward gave up the crown of England for her. And my Wallis is such a princess is just seems to fit!
She has been writing a book about her life and how hard it is to maintain her status as a Lady and a Princess with all that goes on around her. A friend has a few pages of it now working on illustrations.
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CRITTERCALL
"If they care, it doesn't matter; if it matters, they don't care."
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