Lakeville Cavaliers

Who We Are

I am originally from Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. My parents were Canadian immigrants when I was born, so I am both a citizen of Canada and the U.S. I grew up speaking both English and French as a result, and thanks to my father's career working for airlines, I have traveled extensively around the world and speak multiple foreign languages.

Believe it or not, I was scared of dogs as a child! I was mostly fine with my family dogs, but any other dog terrified me. There was no real reason for my fear; I was never attacked or bitten or anything like that. But as a young teen I began babysitting for a woman who did agility and obedience with her Irish Setters and Golden Retrievers. She and her wonderful dogs helped me get over my irrational terror, and I genuinely grew to love all dogs. I especially adored her Golden named Tango, and thank to her, I decided that one day I would have Golden Retrievers of my own.

I went to boarding school in New England for high school. At the time - years before many businesses welcomed dogs - Hotchkiss allowed faculty and staff members' dogs mostly free run of the campus. It was not unusual to see a dog napping in the main lobby or lounging in a classroom or playing with students on the sidelines of the sports fields. I even took my high school yearbook photo with two cheerful English Springer Spaniels that belonged to an English teacher.

In fact, Hotchkiss was the primary inspiration for my kennel name. The school is located in the town of Lakeville, in the far northwestern corner of Connecticut and on the shores of Lake Wononscopomuc, the deepest in the state. I had incredibly fun adventures and made many lifelong friends at Hotchkiss, and I consider it my hometown. Thus when I started my own Cavalier kennel, choosing a name was a no-brainer. It had to be Lakeville.

After high school, I attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. I graduated with degrees in comparative area studies (East Asia and Africa) and economics. I then went to law school at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and earned my J.D. I have been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1997 and have been board certified in U.S. immigration and nationality law since 2002. I own my own full service immigration law firm and specialize in complex immigration litigation. I moved to Houston, Texas, in 1998 for work, and although I planned to only stay for 2 or 3 years before relocating back to the east coast, 28 years later I am still here!

In 2001, I finally moved into my first house in central Houston. I immediately started looking for a rescue Golden Retriever and found an amazing group, Gold Ribbon Rescue in Austin, Texas. Within a matter of weeks, they offered me a three year-old girl named Samantha. One Saturday morning in February 2002, I drove to meet her at her foster home in north Austin. As I pulled into the driveway, I saw her happy, sweet face through the glass screen door, and it was mutual love at first sight! Over lunch her foster mother told me that she had talked to Samantha all week long about my upcoming visit and that I might become her new mommy. When the Saturday of my visit rolled around, Samantha parked herself by the front door as soon as she woke up. She only grudgingly left her post to eat breakfast and go potty outside, but when she came back inside, she immediately returned to her spot by the front door, clearly waiting and looking for something or someone. I knew then that Samantha was destined to be my dog, so it was no surprise that when I asked her if she wanted to go home with me, she cheerfully jumped up and ran to my car.

Her prior owners had raised Samantha with her littermate sister Sadie. When they were surrendered to Gold Ribbon Rescue, it was determined that they would not be rehomed together. While Samantha settled in well with me and seemed mostly content with her new life, I knew she missed her sibling. Every time she saw another Golden, she grew very excited…until she realized it was not her sister. Then Samantha would be a little glum for a few hours. Fortunately, I kept in touch with her GRR foster mother, and in early December 2002 she called to tell me that her next door neighbors had a Golden Retriever that they could no longer care for and wanted to rehome. Samantha and I made another trip to Austin to pick up Ally, who was almost three years old.

Samantha was overjoyed to have a new sister. Ally was just thrilled to live indoors for the first time in her life! In less than a year, I achieved my childhood dream of owning Goldens, and I felt extremely blessed to have two very polite, obedient, and friendly girls. The only downside was that I had to vacuum every other day year-round or else the house would have been coated in hair. But that was a small price to pay to finally have dogs of my very own.

Fawkes and me at the 2023 ACKCSC National Specialty in Virginia Beach, VA

How It Started

My first Cavalier

A couple of years later while driving near my house, I saw my first Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I did not know what kind of dog it was, but I was awestruck by its total adorableness. I had always considered myself to be a big dog person and was not hugely interested in small breeds – until I saw that little Blenheim trotting happily with its owner. Eventually I figured out that the dogs I called “happy, cute, brown and white puppies” were Cavaliers. I wish I could say that I started intensively researching the breed, but all I really did at the time was talk briefly with my vet about them. She confirmed that Cavaliers were very similar in temperament to Goldens, intelligent, and sociable. Still I clung to my long-held belief that I was not a small breed person and did not seriously consider them as a potential pet.

Back then I watched “Sex and the City,” and in 2004 I was thrilled when the character Charlotte York got a Blenheim Cavalier whom she named Elizabeth Taylor. Like thousands of other SATC fans, I decided that I wanted one of my own, but since I had never owned one before, I was nervous about getting one from a rescue and honestly knew NOTHING about buying a dog from a breeder. Little did I know, but it would take over three years after Elizabeth Taylor made her debut on HBO for me to get my first Cavalier!

One of the main reasons I was hesitant about getting a Cavalier was that my vets had warned me that this breed could be prone to heart problems and instructed me to only buy a Cavalier puppy from a breeder who did comprehensive health testing on their breeding dogs. While they treated several Cavaliers in their practice, my vets knew they had not come from reputable, competent breeders. Luckily I had a friend who had previously worked as a vet tech at several clinics in the greater Houston area, and she asked around for me. In the spring of 2007 one of her former coworkers recommended Dorothy J. Swanson of Meadowlake Cavaliers. According to her, Dorothy did a lot of health testing and had pretty dogs which participated in various AKC events. I was still a little suspicious and anxious about buying from an irresponsible producer, but I decided there was no harm in just talking to Dorothy.

In May 2007 I first visited Dorothy’s home outside Houston. When setting up the appointment, she had said that she had no puppies available for sale, but I could meet her and we could get to know each other so that I might get on her wait list for a future litter. As soon as I arrived at her beautiful home in west Houston, I remember thinking, “I don’t care if I have to sell a kidney - I want a puppy from this woman!” It was a dream come true for me as we chatted in her backyard under her oak trees with her stunning, cheerful, loving brood bitches and puppies romping around us. Dorothy asked me if I had a colour and sex preference for a puppy, and being a clueless idiot I said I preferred a Blenheim female. FAMOUS LAST WORDS! She laughed and told me that everyone wants Blenheim girls and she was unlikely to have one available to sell for a long time since she obviously kept the best ones for breeding and showing. She advised me that if I wanted a dog to cuddle and love me forever, I should consider a male Cavalier. Dorothy also reassured me that my Golden Retriever girls would likely accept a male puppy just as easily as a female.

Despite my total cluelessness about preservation breeding and buying a well bred puppy, I must have made a pretty good first impression. After about half an hour of talking and playing with her gorgeous dogs, Dorothy suddenly announced that after she had spoken to me on the phone, a buyer had backed out of a sale. The father had gotten a promotion at work that would require the family to relocate to a different state, and they decided that it would be too stressful to get a puppy with all the upheaval in the home life. Dorothy pointed to a black and tan male diligently exploring every inch of a nearby flower bed and said that he was now available if I were interested. He was the complete opposite of what I had come to her looking for, but as soon as she called him over and placed him in my lap, I knew he was MY DOG. Dorothy gave me her puppy buyer application and urged me to sleep on my decision overnight, but as we said our goodbyes I think we both knew it was a done deal.

Dorothy said I could pick him up a week later when he was about 12 weeks old. In the meantime, she advised me to think about his registered name for the AKC and CKCSC (his formal "government name") as well as his call name (his everyday name). I studied abroad in Japan in college and am fairly fluent in Japanese so I thought it might be nice to give him a Japanese name. I chose Toshihiro 智裕, which roughly translates to intelligent and generous. We registered him as Meadowlake Toshihiro, but he quickly acquired the nickname "Toshi." When I went to pick him up, he snuggled contentedly next to me on the sofa in Dorothy's sunroom as we went over all the paperwork. Dorothy explained all about the AKC and CKCSC and encouraged me to join her clubs. Since I did NOT want to do anything to annoy her and desperately wanted my puppy, I agreed to EVERYTHING she suggested.

While we were talking, one of her young ruby females, Jasmine (Meadowlake Jasmine) kept jumping onto my lap and putting her head on my right shoulder. I naturally thought, "OMG. This dog really loves me! How cute!" But without warning Jasmine would suddenly jump down from my lap and run into Dorothy's dog room only to return a few minutes later and place her head on my shoulder again. I finally remarked how adorable it was that Jasmine kept hugging me which made Dorothy laugh out loud. Jasmine was not deeply in love with me AT ALL. She was using me to get a better view out of the window behind me. Every time she disappeared into the dog room, Jasmine was actually going through the doggy door to the outside to chase away birds which had recklessly perched on her fence! The next time Jasmine jumped off my lap, I turned to watch, and sure enough, Dorothy was right! Still, when Dorothy took a final photo of Toshi and me before we went home, Jasmine perched herself next to us on the sofa and smiled broadly for the camera. In retrospect, it was a sign of things to come....

Toshi at age 4. He had the most expressive face full of wisdom, curiosity, and love.

A Decade of Change

2007-2017

In retrospect, it is almost unbelievable how finding Dorothy and Toshi utterly transformed my life. All I can say is that I am forever grateful to that unnamed vet tech who recommended her.

Toshi was a brilliant puppy. I used clicker training with him, and he learned his commands flawlessly in no time. It helped that he had two Golden Retriever moms who fussed over him and were fantastic at potty training - they knew exactly when he needed to go out and made sure he did not come back inside until he did his business! As much as I love Goldens, I quickly learned that Cavalier intelligence was VERY different. My Goldens were highly biddable and enjoyed consistency in their routines, but they were not super bright in many ways. Toshi, however, was a true intellectual with an excellent memory and creative problem solving skills who loved sorting and organizing everything just so. He was also the first dog that I felt understood every word I said.

When Toshi was a little over a year old, Samantha was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma, a fatal cancer that is sadly becoming more common in large breed dogs. She was given about four months to live, and Toshi became her full-time nurse. He stayed by her side constantly and gently licked her face to comfort her when she grew fatigued from internal bleeding. Samantha always liked sleeping on the floor next to my bed while Toshi preferred to sleep in bed with me. During Samantha's last illness, Toshi started sleeping next her instead of with me. Many nights I woke up to see him watching her closely while she slept, fighting his own exhaustion to make sure she was okay. Samantha passed suddenly early on a Sunday morning. As I wrapped her body in a sheet and prepared to take her to the vet for cremation, through my tears I told Toshi and Ally it was time to say goodbye to her but reassured her that they would see her again one day.

I swear on my dogs' lives that I am not making this up, but as I picked up Samantha's body to carry her to the car, Toshi was weeping. Tears were streaming down his little face as he sat stoically near the back door. I had never seen a dog cry before, but I know what I saw. While it broke my heart a little to see that Toshi was grieving Samantha's death as much as I was, I became convinced that Toshi was an angel in dog form.