My neighbor’s Cavalier, Lady, lived to be just 9. On her last day, she managed to steal an entire slice of pizza from the kitchen counter, which she’d never done before. She ran around the living room with it, tail a blur, cheese dangling from her lips. It was the most alive she’d looked in months.
That’s the Cavalier spirit in a nutshell. They don’t need to live forever. They just need to live fully. So when you look at your little shadow, remember that the average life span is just a number. The real story is the laugh-out-loud, heart-swelling, short-but-sweet ride they take you on. And honestly? It’s worth every single second.
