Her name was Princess, and was the best companion ever known. She was just a plain old country hound, but lived the life of a pack of hounds!

This web page is a summary and tribute to her long fulfilling life. She has been/still is/always will be remembered.

She was a tri-colour 15 inch high Beagle that was born 20Feb90 out in the country west of Rocky Mount, NC. Legend says it was somewhere near Sandy Cross.

The girlfriend I was seeing at the time decided to get the dog and picked this pup out of the litter and named her Princess. Later in life, her full name was determined to be Princess Ganymede Foobar. Ganymede comes from one of the moons of Mars and Foobar is a computer slang variation of the acronym FUBAR.

As a puppy, she was crate trained and like all baby Beagales, she had dark colours on her face and ears, with big dark eyes. As an adult, she would show beautiful brown/black/white markings. Her ears were just a bit shorter than standard, and her tail did not have the typical white tip that was bred into the standard so they could be spotted in the tall grass when on the hunt. Even though Princess would never match the perfect Beagle standard, she was still a Beagle through and through. The colouring, the velvet ears, big brown eyes and that wonderful Beagle bark confirmed she was a true hound.

As a puppy, I admit I didnt really care for her. She was still a baby, and was not housebroken yet and whined a lot too. Things happened and the relationship ended. Years later, I was contacted concerning Princess. She was living at a relative's house. I had some misgivings about taking her because I lived by myself and was not sure if she would interfere with things I did or would I have to dedicate I didnt have to her and her lifestyle. I had never been the sole owner of a pet.

When I traveled to Tarboro to pick up the hound, the owner's husband was waiting for me. We went out to the backyard where she was. At this point in her life, she was a typical middle aged outside dog. She seemed to be wild and fairly active. She would chase after a tennis ball but for some reason, would never bring it back. She had dug holes in the yard and like to play keep away if you tried to catch her and love to run here, there and everywhere. Her belongings were gathered up and she went to her new home in Raleigh. One of my first mistakes was letting her go out in the front yard for her bathroom break. She has wandered off into the middle turn lane of a busy street with cars racing by! Thankfully I was able to retrieve her with no problems. One of her bad habits was playing the game of keep away. Whenever I approached Princess, she was dash away at the last moment, thinking it was a game. Fixing that bad habit was one of the first things we corrected.

For about the first month I banished her to the garage during the day when I worked, because I did not trust her during the day. Eventually, she gained my trust and she could now stay in the house. She adjusted fairly quickly to a daily routine, woke up, went outside, came back in, breakfast time and then all by herself until I came home from work. Then it was another bathroom break and dinner time. Over the years, she would go temporarily crazy when I got home. Of course, I kind of encouraged that behaviour anyway since I was excited myself to be home and to also see the hound. Since I didnt own a crate or dog bed, I usually found Princess on the couch all curled up in a tight ball near one end. I attempted to let her know that the couch was off limits to get on, but she never quite learned. I would smack her arse with a yardstick when I made her get down and it did not take her long to figure out if she was on the couch and I came in, she would jump down quickly. The only thing that worked was to lay a broom on the couch. She was scared of it, and would avoid it even if I was not holding it. Unfortunately, even I hated removing the broom when I wanted to sit down so eventally she got her way.

Princess was quite scared of loud noises, and would stumble backwards and appear frightened and startled even if two dishes clinked together or a chair was moved in the kitchen. During her life, she never really got used to loud noises. Shooting off fireworks on the 4th of July would cause her to find the remotest part of the house such as a closet corner and hide in there until the noises subsided.

Like most dogs these days, Princess misbehaved when on a lead. She would pull and wander all over the place. Gently yanking her back when she attempted to wander away or when her nose took over fixed the problem quite handily. After a little while, Princess walked right beside me on a short lead and walking with her was no problem. She didnt understand SIT or STAY or HEEL or only occasionally remembered SIT but she did very well.

At night, if she found a pillow on the floor, she would lay with her front legs and head on it, and never attempted to climb on top and curl up in a little ball. If she was good, I would put a blanket on the bed and let her sleep there. She never normally woke up during the night, but if I did and I wanted to get something to drink, I had to be VERY quiet because if I made any kind of noise, she'd wake up, and then I'd have to let her out for a bathroom break. She'd sleep in various parts of a house and never had a particular sleeping location. For the most part, it would be the couch.

----------------------
Middle age

Over the years, Princess and I would go out walking at a large flea market on sunday afternoons. She was supposed to be my chick magnet, but she didnt do too well with that. All the attention we got went directly to Princess because she was so pretty and everyone loves the velvet ears and big brown eyes of hounds. During the summer walks, she would start panting and on the way home, would lay in the floorboards of the truck to cool off. When the A/C was running, I'd point the airstream right at her and she'd cool off fairly quickly. On sundays we'd take a midday nap on the couch together with her laying in front of me. If I was on the couch and she wanted up, we figured out a system where if she climbed up and put her front paws on the couch, I would place my hand behind her head and push, and Princess would push her head back against my hand which would lever her up and onto the couch.

During her middle life, she started seeming to appear lazier and was getting fatter. I would share parts of my meals with her, be it sausage or bacon or burgers or various fast food items. At one point, she weighed no less than 30 pounds! When she went to the vet for regular service, I inquired about her weight and body shape, and the vet just dismissed it as that was her body type. She did not appear excessively overweight, but when viewed from above, she did not have the appearance of having a waist.
Whenever I felt like taking a nap, Princess would always be a willing partner. Once she laid down, she hardly moved, if ever. Even cutting back on her food intake did little to decrease her weight. A side affect of this behaviour was that the hairs on top of her snout right in front of her nose were starting to fall out and the thick part of her tail was starting to get bare. She would get up readily and do things, but never refused the chance to lay down and take a nap.
Over the years I started to notice that Princess was walking a bit slower and tiring quicker. When I urged her to run, she would only use one back leg. Other than that, she behaved normally. One time, a neighborhood kid came to the house and as he was leaving on his bicycle, Princess was outside and ran up to him barking, since he was a stranger. The kid then fell off his bike which caused Princess to quickly back up, and she fell over. It was funny to see that chain reaction. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Princess and I had many adventures. During the summer of 1997, we hardly were at home on weekends. We traveled down to Charleston to visit a pen pal and we stayed at a campground there, we drove out to the beach, with Princess sleeping on the truck seats during the trip on the ferry, and we also went out on the boat. When Princess went on one of her beach trips, we took our rather small boat out in the ocean and took a short but very rough trip to the Oregon Inlet shoals. After having tied up the boat, we went for a walk on the hard packed sand. Princess could walk a little faster because the sand was a softer surface to walk on. At one point, I made her ford a small depression that wave action had caused. It was about 10 inches deep, a little more than I expected. I urged her on and she made it through to dry sand. The rest of the time out there, she refused to walk on top of any standing water, even if it was just a reflection of water half an inch deep. Whenever we took the boat out to the lake, I'd put her in the bottom of the boat but she would invariably stand up and hook the nails on her front paws over the seat to either gain stability or to attempt to get to me. The pleading would eventually prompt me to take Princess and put her on my lap as I operated the boat. Other boaters would usually get a kick out of me holding this small hound, cruising across the lake.

Princess was not really fat, but was fairly well-rounded. When we were at the lake once, I put her in the water. She didnt really mind, but didnt appear to show any pleasure about it either. In the water where it was only a few inches deep, she stopped and sat down for alittle while. I guess the cool water on a hot day felt good. I took her out to some deeper water and let go. She was swimming, although very poorly. About the only thing showing above the water was her nose. At one point, she appeared to be rolling over on her side before sinking, like a battleship would do. Thankfully, she righted herself and made it alittle farther. After that, I didnt force her to swim anymore. Some time later, we were walking around a small lake and discovered a raft tied up. I jumped onto it and Princess didnt make it. She sank like a stone and disappeared! After what seemed like 10 seconds, she floated back up so I quickly put her on the raft. I never attempted to make her swim until much later in her life. After going out to the lake, we'd take a nap on the couch as being in the hot sun and hitting all those waves seems to make one sleepy.

One thing I noticed, but never tried to do was that she could be left alone for well over 12 hours inside the house. Since she was a lazy acting dog, I suspect she just slept most of the time. She never was interested in chasing balls or having chew toys.
One of her funny quirks was barking when the doorbell was rung. I always encouraged that because it was enjoyable to hear her barking and she always got excited with the hair on her back going up. If a doorbell rang on a tv show, that would get her going also and if I could fake a good doorbell sound effect, that would get her excited too. Within the first few weeks of having Princess, she was outside and spotted a cat in the front yard. She barked and chased after the cat until it climbed up a tree in the back yard. I never saw Princess move so fast before.

During trips to various places, Princess was an excellent traveling companion. She would sit up for while, and then eventually lay down. I just had to be careful not to stop too quick or take tight turns. Otherwise I'd hold her still so she would not have to get up and it would take a little while before she'd settle down again.

Several times we went to the coast. Princess would sleep in the truck during the 2+ hour ferry trip and she would Beagle around whilst I set up camp. I'd either leave her in the tent or tie her to a post when I was away from camp. Sometimes she would get a sand spur in a paw and would not or could not walk. Once I pulled them out, she was ready for roaming around to the limit of her lead.

In the spring of 1999 I lost my job and by summertime I had found a short term contract job that required travel on weekdays. I had no choice but to take Princess with me as I did not know anyone to care for her. Basically, I'd travel to various small towns to help banks with a software migration and when the day's work was done, I enjoy the rest of the day and find a hotel to stay at. During the day, I'd do my best to find a remote shady spot to park in and let her sleep on the seats with the windows half cranked down. I'd go and check on her as much as I could get away with. Most of the time she was either laying down awake or sleeping away so I did not disturb her. On one particularly hot day, I made a rudimentary shelter with some boxes in the back of the truck and a towel and closed the tailgate and filled a dish with water. It was not the best setup, but it worked. I checked on the dog constantly and she did fine. In another instance I backed up to a grassy area beside the parking lot and lowered the tailgate and tied her lead to the trailer hitch and had another big dish of water. She couldnt really do much, but grass, shade from the tailgate and water provided some comfort. Again I checked on her constantly and everything was fine. Thankfully those were the only instances I worried about her. At night before I went to bed, I'd let her wander around for a bathroom break and suppertime, and she'd spend the night in the truck. In the morning I'd wake her up. I was tempted, but never tried to sneak her into the hotel room with me. She would have done fine, but one bark would have caused trouble I'm sure.

Not long after, I purchased a 1973 Dodge motorhome named Serendipity for $1450. Once the RV was checked out for travel, Princess and I headed for the coast. We woke up around 2am and hit the road for several hours at 57mph. Princess would lay down on one of the bunks during the trip and then we'd rest when waiting for the ferry. Once we set up camp, I either left her inside or tied her to the BBQ grill post or picnic table. Then whenever I returned from where I was, I'd pull out any sand spurs she stepped on and did whatever we felt like. In the RV, I would sleep on one bunk, and Princess would sleep on the other on a towel or whatever she found to lay on.

Over the years, she would walk slower and slower although whenever she was off lead, she'd always be following me even if she was a ways behind since I walk so fast. I'd stop, and she would make the best effort she could to catch up with me. She was slow enough that she could always be caught if she happened to wander off.

Eventually, Princess' owner found a nice girl to date and get engaged to, so Princess met some new friends. The first was a tiny runt Shih Tzu, all 8 pounds of her. The other was a very fluffy and friendly black cat. Princess never really got socialized during her life so having these other animals around was most likely rather confusing. Princess eventually found the Shih Tzu's dog bed and managed to curl up inside it, even though it was designed for a smaller sized dog. Over time, the Shih Tzu and cat tolerated Princess, and Princess tolerated them, but never to the point of sharing a food dish or sleeping beside each other.

At some point, it was time to take Princess in for her checkup and went to the vet that the other animals went to. Princess had previously been diagnosed with a luxating patella that was part of the cause of her gimpiness. Once concern was she developed an egg-size bump underneath her backend. Thankfully, the vet confirmed it was just a cyst, and nothing to be concerned about as it caused her no pain. She checked out healthy and we inquired about her weight and laziness. She was well over 25 pounds, and lost her feminine figure, that being her narrow waist. Also, her coat seemed rough and the hair on her tail and snout was getting thin. Blood tests were taken, and the result was that Princess had a thyroid that was running way too slow. She was prescribed Thorazine which is a tiny pink pill. Within a week, she was starting to transform! Even though she was old, she was much more active, her weight really dropped off, and got her girlish figure back. I thought the issues were related to old age and laziness. It was good to see Princess revived again. Her coat became more lush and soft, and while her hair was still thin on her tail and nose, it never got worse and her snout started to return back to a normal appearance. Princess' eyes were cloudy, indicating cataracts, but another source mentioned natural clouding of the eyes with vision not being impaired. This was never quantified but Princess was always able to see without any issues.

After getting married, there was about 3 months needing to be spent in a extended stay hotel whilst a new house was being built. Accomodations were pretty cramped, but livable. Since the room was upstairs, Princess had to be carried down and up the stairs in the morning before work, after work, and just before bedtime. The animals were able to accomodate the small living quarters without problems.

At the new house, there was plenty of places to explore and Princess had two places of her own. One was near the stairs going up, and the other was in the main bedroom. Two fluffy dogbeds were placed in those areas and she preferred laying on them instead of anywhere else, even on the bed. She learned fairly quick to scratch on the door when she needed to go out. She'd go down the stairs and take care of matters, then slowly come back up and scratch on the door again to be let inside. When Princess woke up in the morning, she had a regular routine of stretching, jumping around in crazy mode, a bathroom break, and then back inside for breakfast and a nap.

For the first few years, Princess never attempted to go upstairs. I never forced her to, and she never figured it out herself.

Story to continue...

page created 07/07/07