This picture has nothing to do with my story. I just like putting pictures on.

My story for today:

On weekday mornings, I listen to the news on Kong TV (King 5 News on Kong) because I wake up so late now that I miss the news on the other channels. For years and years I always woke up everyday between 5 and 6AM. Now I usually don't wake up until about 8AM.

This morning on the news there was a blind person with a Guide dog. He explained some about the training and about the expense involved. The Guide dog that he had was a beautiful black Lab. Watching that beautiful dog, reminded me of the black Lab we had for awhile when we were in Bonney Lake.

We had a beautiful black Lab. We named her Princess. She was another dog that was dropped off at our place. She was a wonderful dog. She loved us all so much and we loved her. Princess was a great guard dog. Anyone she did not know would not get up our driveway. She would bark and growl (she had a deep growl) until one of us would say "It's OK, Princess".

Your Uncle Horace came out to spend a couple of weeks to help on the house. He had never been to our house before. We heard Princess barking and growling and I got to the door just in time to see your Uncle Horace run back and jump into his car. He must have had a bad experience with a dog because even when I got to the car, he was hesitant about getting out. I told him Princess would not bother him. Once we gave our approval, Princess always remembered the person.

Princess watched over you kids. Whenever Darrell and Dan were fighting, Princess would not put up with it. She would jump right between them and make them stop.

I'm sure you remember that one mean calf we had. It can't remember if that was "September" or another one. Anyway, I think that calf was born mean. He would come charging at you whenever he got out of the fence, which was pretty often, because the fence had a lot of places to get out of. He would run up and butt you as hard as he could. We were all scared of him. Babe was his mother and she was such a gentle cow.

One day that calf came charging after Darrell and Dan. They were both pretty small yet, maybe three and four. They both started screaming and Princess came running and got between the calf and the boys. She went right for the calf's throat and he took off. I had never seen anything like that. I can see why they use Labs for Guide dogs. Labs are very intelligent dogs.

Our property was all woods. One day Princess came out of the woods and she was covered with Porcupine Quills. Your dad wasn't home so I ran and got our neighbor, Mr. Todd, to help me get the quills out.. I'm sure we probably didn't get them out properly because a few days later she disappeared and never came back. Of course it could have been something else but we always figured she died in the woods from the quills. That was a very sad time.

I have a lot of nice memories of Princess. Even though I do not want the responsibility of a dog anymore, I do love dogs and cats too.