Dogs In Our Decor

My first English dogs
Winnie the Cav and Jumper the Corgi
at the beach house in East Hampton

Our new baby boy Cholo
when we first brought him home to New Orleans

I notice that alot of visual vamps have dogs that match their decor. The Duchess of Windsor had pugs, and The Duchess of Decorno has a pug. Many have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. The Cav is the most painted dog in art history. The Queen has Corgis, and I find alot of decor people have those too, as well as Bulldogs, English and French. Retro minded vamps have small poodles. Men with taste have Standard Poodles. Then there are the terriers - Jack Russell, Wire Hair, and Scottie. Small to medium sizes prevail, the kinds that look good on the furniture. Some large ones are popular too, Old English Sheep Dogs and Grey Hounds.
Then there are the best ones, the mixed breeds. And also cats, who wrote the book on draping themselves on furniture.
I have a Cav. It's my second one. I had a Welsh Pembroke Corgi too. It's true when I got them I was very much in love with English style decor. As I educated myself in the vernacular, my eye kept seeing all those Cav paintings. And the Queen had 14 Corgis!
But I didn't buy the dogs to match the decor.
My first Cav was purchased as a gift for a friend who was very ill. It was kind of a last wish request. She cost $1500. and it took me a year to pay her off on my Visa card. My friend had her for the five years of her life, and sadly he did pass away. I inherited her for the next eleven years. Her name was Winnie and she passed away at age 16.
The Corgi choice was a lark. My ex-husband lost his childhood dog to old age, and he was very depressed. I checked out an AKC book of breeds from the library, and tried to get him interested in looking at dog pictures. He was mourning, and couldn't do it.
I read the book from cover to cover, and I kept going back to the page about the Welsh Corgi (there is another breed called the Cardigan Corgi). I liked the Corgi because it a had a very long life span. It was a medium size dog, about 35 pounds fully grown, and I thought that was a good size for man, and for our NYC apartment. I also thought the Corgi looked like a mutt with those short legs, and a body shaped like an Electrolux vacuum cleaner.
We eventually got one. I saw an ad in The New York Times, rented a car to go to a farm in Pennsylvania where the puppy was. The ex-hubs was pensive on the three hour ride there. I assured him if he didn't like the dog we'd chalk it up to a drive in the country. The puppy was the last in the litter. Home raised. He was in a little pen in the kitchen. We walked in and sat on the floor, and they let the puppy out, who jumped in my ex's arms, licked is face, and was ours from then on.
So there I was a gal with an English style decor and two picture perfect English dogs.
When Winnie died the present hubs asked for no more pets (our ancient cat died too). We travel alot.
But the house was too empty. And then Katrina came and went leaving vast pools of emptiness. I asked the hubs for another dog, and we got our second Cav, our baby boy Cholo.
Now we do not have $1500. for a dog. I spent many hours online after Katrina, on eBay, another kind of therapy. I also looked at those Puppy Find sites just to see the cute puppy pictures. I was looking at females, because that's what we had. I also looked for dogs within driving distance, because I just couldn't buy a d ---, A DOG in a box. The prices were out of reach. I tried to find a rescue dog, an old dog if need be. But no luck
But one day I flipped to the page with male dogs, and there he was. $300.!
Why? He's a registered breed. He's 4 months old. He's a mismark. Say what?!
I contacted the breeder, again a home raised situation, and I was told that the puppy only had the proper markings over one eye, a half-a-mask so to speak, and for this reason he was considered flawed. The breeder told me that most often these puppies are destroyed, killed at birth to preserve purity of the breed. But since he's not a show dog breeder (or a heartless fuck), he sells the mismarks at a discount for a family pet.
Hot damn! I sold a Chanel jacket on eBay, and we drove to Mississippi and got our dog!
Please send me photos of your dog (or cat) at home ensconced in your decor. It would be fun to post them from time to time.
Send photos to: visualvamp1@yahoo.com