Izzy and Spalding

When we moved to Manteo, Sherry brought her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, as well. He just turned 7 years-old, but is already virtually completely deaf for some unknown reason. Apparently, this is not uncommon with this breed. At any rate, his name is Spencer, but I've been calling him Spalding, as it really doesn't matter what you call him - he rarely responds. But, he's a very sweet dog, and his primary goals in life are eating and licking humans for hours on end, if you let him. Amusingly, he also exhibits signs of narcolepsy, and will randomly plop down anywhere, anytime and immediately fall asleep.

Izzy, on the other hand, is the wound-up one in this family. I got her as a surprise for Sherry around the holidays last year, and, believe it or not, bought her online. She's a purebred Newfoundland from Ohio of all places. 'Newfies' as they're affectionately called, are usually tremendous water dogs, and stories of their rescue of humans from sinking ships abound. They're a big bred with males reaching 150+ lbs, and females 120+. Izzy's approaching the 100 lb mark already, so she could exceed their normal rate - which is cool - I love big dogs.

In hindsight, Izzy's name turned out to be wholly fitting as she's fuzzy, dizzy and crazy - emphasis on the crazy. During the past winter, she would run full barrel across our pool cover out back - seemingly briefly defying gravity. Now with the pool open, she likes to cool off all the time, and kind of swims lazily like a bloated manatee. One thing's for sure, her parents from Ohio - who supposedly lived on a pondless- and lakeless- farm, didn't give Izzy much in the way of swimmer genes. Frankly, her preference is to climb either one of us, and be held like a baby. Come on now!

At any rate, we love Izzy and Spalding, and they basically rule the roost when they want to around here.