My Special Boy: Bailey

Bailey

I have a special boy – his name is Bailey and he is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Bailey came to live with me when he was just over two years old. Prior to that he had lived in about four different homes as he was a show dog and he was shown by a variety of people.

Unfortunately the last home he lived in (not the breeders) was not so good and he was not looked after very well. So when he first came to live with me he was in a sad state. His coat was matted and stained, his teeth were black and he was obviously not used to chewing any kind of food. It took about nine months – but then his coat started to grow, his teeth had been cleaned and he was eating food enthusiastically.

A beautiful temperament emerged which was surprising given all the rehoming that he had gone through. Throughout all of it he never lost his trust in people, and he liked nothing better to meet and greet as many people as he could wherever we went. I showed him for quite a few years and he loved the show environment as it gave him access to lots of people and their dogs. One of the standards for the Cavalier breed is that they be ‘gay and fearless’. Bailey certainly was that and still is – and I have seen him greet huge dogs such as a Great Dane just as comfortably and without any hesitation as he would one of his own breed. He is also right at home with other breeds of animals – and shows a genuine friendliness to animals such as cats, kittens and other little animals. He would rather make friends with them than hunt them as some of my other cavaliers would do.

A couple of years after I acquired Bailey, another little Cavalier joined our family. This boy became very ill not long after he arrived and spent quite a lot of time in a veterinary hospital. He was anxious and unhappy and would not eat for the staff until I started taking Bailey in to visit him. He would sit beside my poor sick puppy very calmly and quietly and this inspired him to eat.

We were at a dog show one day and one of the breeders had a very nervous and excitable puppy who had never been to a show ground before. Bailey walked up to this dog and sat down beside her. He made no move to sniff her as most dogs would, he just sat so patiently, glancing over to her from time to time. After about half an hour this nervous and excitable puppy calmed down and started to interact happily with Bailey. He showed great gentleness in his interactions with her as if he knew that she was somewhat fragile, and after a while she was able to walk away a much happier dog.

After Bailey had retired from the show ring I started to take him to visit a nursing home on a weekly basis. It was here that this empathetic side of his nature really blossomed. On a normal visit he would enter a room and stand beside the person who was patting him. However, on almost every visit he would vary his behavior with one of the residents and would either put his paws upon their lap or rub his head up their arm. This was always instigated by him and I would then find out later that that person had had a bad week or was having a bad day, and he was intuitive enough to recognize how they were feeling.

There was one lady in the nursing home who did not speak and the staff didn’t think that she could. After our first visit when Bailey jumped up and rubbed his head up and down her arm, she began to talk to him and the staff were amazed. She would not speak on any other day, but always spoke to Bailey when we visited.

Some years later I suffered some serious health issues which involved chemotherapy as part of the treatment. Whilst my other dogs would sit close to me, Bailey took it upon himself on particularly bad days to always touch me somewhere – either with his head or a paw. His close presence certainly helped me through a very bad time.

One of his most memorable moments was at the Dog Lovers Show held at the Exhibition Grounds. Our Cavalier Club had a breed stand there and we were approached by many people throughout the day. I took Bailey along and he was in his element greeting all the people and meeting dogs of other breeds.

A couple approached our stand with a little girl in tow. Even from a distance you could sense the child’s reluctance to come too close, and the parents explained that their child had been severely traumatized by a dog and consequently was terrified of them.

After talking to them for a while I picked up Bailey and walked around to stand beside them. He stood there so quietly making no attempt to jump on them – but he spent a lot of time looking over in the direction of the little girl. We found a more secluded place and eventually we all sat down on the floor together, and I could see Bailey slowly edging closer to the child. When she eventually put out her hand to pat him of her own volition it was the most beautiful moment – and I’m not ashamed to say that her parents and I just could not help the tears – as she had made the first tentative steps towards trusting again.

In a couple of months time Bailey will be 14. In the last twelve months he has had some rather serious health problems. Last year he developed an ulcer in one of his eyes that eventually had to be debrided, and while this was going on we discovered that he also had a stone in his gall bladder.