Tilly

Tilly is ten and retired, and she is the reason much of this program exists in its present form. She is a heavily marked Blenheim, the granddaughter of my tricolor foundation bitch, the dam of Rupert and Wren, and a champion in her own right. The freckles on her muzzle arrived at about seven and she wears them well. Her heart was clear at every annual examination through eight years old. A soft grade 1 murmur was first heard at nine and a half, with no enlargement on echocardiogram, and she takes no medication. For a Cavalier that is a very good result, and it is the kind of information we keep our old dogs in order to have. She had three litters, the last at six, and was spayed afterward. These days she supervises the whelping room from her end of the sofa and is first to the garden door when anyone reaches for a coat.