Princess was actually "Andrea's Dog." I clearly remember the moment of her arrival into our lives. The year was 1964. I was 4. I was looking through legs of others facing the vestibule leading to the front door. I think it was a friend of Andrea's who gave her. The emotions I felt as that very little boy...We're getting a Dog! She was entering our lives, part of "The Ten" now, part of all and everything in experience for everyone.
I think Bill played with Princess more than anyone else.
Always around, our playful dog. Timothy writes: "Rob and I were the only ones at home at Hancock Drive when she passed-away, she relieved of the sad, heart-wrenching horrible coughing fits and gasping she suffered from in her last year. Mom couldn't stand the thought of "putting her to sleep." It was a Saturday, I was 19, Princess was 15. I had just stepped out of the shower, standing by the sink in the bathroom and Rob knocked on the door. 'I'm almost finished.'
'She is finished......Princess just died.'
'Oh, no!' I quickly put on clothes and went to her. I petted the lifeless body.
'What should we do?'
'I'll cover her,' I said, going to get a towel for that purpose. 'Let's call Biz.'
'Oh geeze. O.K. I'll be right over.'
We waited for Mom to get home. She often recalled years hence coming into the house and seeing the lump with a towel on the floor. It struck her deeply. Billy came and we dug a hole in the backyard. I made a cross with sticks. Bill, Rob, and I held hands as I said a prayer for her. I turned and saw that Mom was watching form the TV Room windows. She was weeping.
At the Reservoir with Andrea and Rob. Great photo by Demo, Jr.
Though it'd be nice to have a photo of it, etched in all our brains is that unique part of Princess's personality...that she chased rocks. She dug-up rocks and would carry, sometimes 'boulders' in her mouth. At Otisco camps we'd through a rock in the water and she'd dive down and disappear and come-up to the surface with it!
I remember how early on, Princess must have been no more than 3, she went off 'somewhere.' Mom went frantic. After giving-up on going up and down Hancock Drive calling for her, we jumped into the car. We drove up and down every street. Unbelievably we found her way up above the Bellevue Country Club golf course!
What a VERY SPECIAL Photo! These were at the beginning too, of our family life with Kittens and Cats. Though Timothy had found a stray and brought it in, "Darin #1" so named (after the Bewitched husband character), the #1 because it left after a time and a smaller one with similar fur reappeared a month later and became "Darin #2." These 4 kittens came when Andrea had brought home her Cat from college and had these, but the mother cat soon died, and so it was given unto us little kids, with the help and guidance of Mom as advised by Dr. Stack, our family pet Vet, to feed them a special formula with eye-droppers to give them a chance for life. They all survived. I only remember one's name, Charky for its charcoal color, which was later given to the Cannellos household. One of them, light tan-colored, might have been named Buckwheat? One or more of the other three remained and gave birth to others etc. I'm not sure how it developed exactly but at one point we were hiding over 10 cats/kittens in the basement which we feared, if they escaped upstairs, for Dad never seemed to go downstairs, he'd have an end to it if he knew. Mom loved animals too much. We did have to get rid of most of them when indeed, I recall the moment, one did escape from the basement stairwell into the kitchen right when Dad was standing there.... I think we kept one hidden yet following that dramatic moment when the man of the house declared: "Either they go or I go!"
