If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen my puppy, Binney. Binney is a female Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy from Rockabilly Cavaliers, a lovely breeder family in Red Lion, Pennsylvania.
I’ve wanted a dog my whole life. When I was little, I really loved animals – I loved to ride horses, and always bonded with friends and family’s dogs. But, with a mother, brother and sister with dog allergies, I was always told getting a dog was out of the question.
“We travel to Vermont too much for a dog,” my parents would say.
“I don’t want to get shots every two weeks,” my mom would say.
So, needless to say, when my mom first brought up her desire for a puppy in 2015 or 2016, I was shocked. I was angry, actually. I’ve wanted a dog my whole life, and now that I’m out of the house and in college and moving out soon they were going to get one? Not fair.
Fast forward a few years, and the prospect of having a dog became more real. My mom was dead set on getting a Cavalier (despite my dad wanting to rescue a big dog and me having a lifelong dream of owning a Golden Retriever), and found Rockabilly Cavaliers on Instagram. In what may as well have been the blink of an eye, she had inquired about getting a puppy from the next litter, and had already put down the deposit.
Now, if you know my mom, you know she is picky. When she has her heart set on something, she doesn’t give up until she gets it. (If you’re reading this mom, go take your powder blue Vespa for a ride) She specifically wanted a Blenheim Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which has the traditional white and brown coloring. She wanted one with a perfect spot on its head, and she would only get a girl.
After attempting to find a rescue to fit her standards, she moved on to Rockabilly. Once the litter was born on March 2, we scheduled a trip for the end of the month to drive the four hours to the Pennsylvania farm to pick out our puppy.
When I say the dogs were the size of guinea pigs, I’m not kidding. It’s not all that often that people see dogs at that young of an age unless your puppy has a litter itself. I was in shock at how small the dogs were, and ended up with a pile of five puppies on top of me. Talk about heaven!
When it came time to choose one for ourselves, we asked Heather, of Rockabilly Cavaliers, which puppy she would choose to keep if they weren’t all spoken for. She pointed out “Princess Gummybear” the smallest of the litter, with a cute little pancake face. From that moment on, we were in love.
We drove back to Pennsylvania on April 27 to pick up our little baby. After a list of name choices, many British-inspired, we chose the name Binney. Binney Park is down the road from us in Old Greenwich, and the Binney family was the creators of Crayola crayons. I came up with the idea to name her Binney, and the uniqueness of the name stuck.
Upon her arrival in Greenwich, she met the rest of her family for the first time ever. She drove to Kent, CT to help my sister get ready for prom, and met more people in her first week at home than we ever would have imagined! For her first month and a half or so at home, my mom and I alternated sleeping on the couch next to her crate to help get her house trained and used to sleeping in the crate at night. Now, two months later, she sleeps on her own and is pretty darn good at going to the bathroom outside. We trained her to ring a bell by the back door every time she needs to go out.
She’s growing fast – but she’s still only about seven pounds. Everyone who meets her falls in love immediately. She’s a quiet, laid back puppy, except during her hyper hours. During those times, she loves to run around, play fight, bark and growl at you while she nips on your fingers and toes.
Binney hates bath time. She loves to sleep with her eyes open. She hates eating kibble – unless there’s warm, soft food mixed in. She loves bacon, strawberries, pineapple and whipped cream. She loves playing with her stuffed Mallard duck and the old Skip-It from the garage. She’s about to start teething – wish us luck! Follow Binney the Cavie on Instagram to see more adorable pictures of my beautiful little pup.