I'm Just a Girl with Overflowing Love

My head is spinning with information from lots of different views. I have been searching for other people that know the pain I am feeling but I need to be careful what I say. I don't know if anyone even reads this but if they do I am no expert. The Cavalier SM Yahoo group I put a link to, has several people that know a lot more than I do and it is a wonderful support group. I think people are so caring because they know the frustration and how tough this is.

I think the Internet is a wonderful tool to get infrmation but you need to be careful because people can voice opinions and things can be not really the whole truth. So here are some facts. I love Ella more than anyone will ever know. I am not a doctor of anything, I am not a breeder, I am not a member of some national cavalier club, SM is not just a problem with cavaliers, I think that this is a very real problem and I want to help but don't know how.

I have very mixed feelings about the BBC special because I know for fact that one person here in Charlotte saw it and it brought her to realize that her dog might need to be checked out. I think it brought awareness to a lot of people and that special makes it seem like no one is doing something and that breeders are a certain way. I also heard fom someone (now it came from a national organization but who knows if it's true) but they got the dog excited so it would have an episode. There are many responsible breeders that care about these dogs and know how special this breed is. So here is a fact, without breeders there would not be cavaliers.

I want to help but I have no money and i'm trying to pay for Ella but I have a passion and a caring heart. So when I brought up wanting to get our meet up group to come together and make SM something we could try to raise money for, I wanted to know how. I had to talk to the president about it and I am still shocked at how little people think this problem is. When I got one of my Cavalier books that I got a couple of years ago I saw several pages on. MVD but nothing on SM. I think it had a paragraph about Fly catchers disease. So when people say this is a new, it is not new but it is fastly growing and now people know this isn't fly catchers disease.

Back to be careful of what you read. When I first started talking about it I got the reaction from her that I first had, "that breeder should not have been breeding." "that is why people pay so much money for cavaliers to not have these health problems". I thought she had to have known so why was she breeding. I think the BBC special took this viewpoint too. That is not true. She did not know and even though ella's family was screened for MVD, it just isn't simple for SM. I am not going to go into it because I don't want to give wrong information, but all I can say is to not assume things before thinking of another point of view.

Back to how to help. Don't know the best way. I think there is a national society for people but not animals. So if anyone knows of anything please tell me but it shouldn't be this hard to know the best way to help. I don't have money but I do have a passionate heart and I know how this is so hard for anyone.

I was told last night something that made me see yet another view and this one meant more than all of the others. I was told that God gave me Ella for a reason. I am known for volunteering (Ella is a therapy dog) and for helping with PetPalooza which is a fundraiser for the Humane Society in Charlotte so they thought I could reach others through my heart and because I want to do something. So please help me by giving me the best thing possible, letting me know I have touched someone or that this will be true. Ella is the most special dog and when I saw her with her litter she came to me. All the others were playing and Ella cuddled in my arms and I fell in love.