puppies – Halcyon Creative

I am an avid animal lover. I can’t help but assist wild animals in need, fawn over dogs and cats out in public, and leave many heart-eyed emojis on my friends Instagram posts of their pets. As crazy as I am about animals, however, I really haven’t had a irregular amount of pets.

I grew up with cats in various numbers. When I was in fourth grade, for example, we had 2 adult cats and my mom volunteered to foster 5 newborn kittens! It was so much fun to watch them grow. We also had a rescue yellow lab when I was in high school named Sandy, who was scared to death of anyone but my mom (poor girl!). Then in a previous relationship, I had a Newfoundland dog named Atlas! I don’t miss that situation, but WOW do I miss that doggo! Breakups with pups are involved are even worse than normal ones. Then of course, there is Asia. Asia was the first cat I ever got as a second grader, and is still alive today. She is TWENTY years old, and just as sassy as ever. I adore that girl and consider her my sister.

When David and I started dating, I got to meet his rescue pit bull terrier mix, Khan. Khan has some trouble socializing with humans (because he too, had some unpleasant stuff in his past), but he LOVES other dogs. So I decided I wanted to get a dog both for me & David, and for Khan as a playmate.

Picking a dog breed is hard. I looked at shelters and watched rescue organizations like a hawk, but never felt a connection to any of the dogs I saw. My lifestyle is incredibly busy. I needed a dog who could easily socialize when I went places, and wasn’t scared of people or other dogs. I knew because of my schedule I needed a dog with a moderate to low exercise requirement but one that would still play with Khan. I took “dog personality tests”, and ended up even more confused than before.

I was discussing this with Corbin, who in turn said “What are those little spaniels? Like Allie (our friend) had?”

And that was it! A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel! I found a woman in Michigan who raised them casually (she has 4 and when they have puppies, she sells them), and got in contact with her. I loved her personality right away. She spent 20-30 minutes talking to me about my expectations for a dog, and learning about my living situation. She recommended that I take the smallest boy in her newborn litter. She sent me pictures and I fell in love.

Enter: Napoleon

We adopted Napoleon when he turned 10ish weeks old. He was about 5 lbs at the time. He is a perfect fit for our little family and has done amazing since we brought him home. Erin (my oldest and bestest friend and photographer EXTRAORDINAIRE who lives all the way in KCMO) came and visited and took these CUTE pics of Napoleon and I. I will cherish them forever, because he already is about 3 lbs bigger!

If anyone is wondering, Napoleon sleeps through the night but is struggling a little with potty training. We have only had him about 6 weeks now, so everything I read online suggests he is just a little too small to figure it out still. Either way, he is the best. Adopting him amidst the COVID mess was actually easier than expected. I work from home all day so he gets taken out as often as Dave or I can remember and snuggled basically every time he stops playing with Khan.

If you are interested in more info about Napoleon or the family I adopted him from, please feel free to email or contact me. We had a great experience with them, and Napoleon came to us socialized with cats, dogs and lots of humans. He is love incarnated in a tiny fuzzy coil. If you follow me on insta or follow my blog, you can expect to see a lot of him from here on out.