[The family members in the cover photo for this post, taken around 1955 in Dayton, Ohio, are Ray, Denise, Princess and Maatu, who is referred to as Ernesta in the text of the following emails.]
Over the last several years my brother, Ray has been scanning and organizing Dad’s huge collection of family pictures. After Ray sent an email asking to verify the content of a few images Dad sent the family the following email sorting out the identity of two of our family dogs.
Our family was always a dog family. There was never a time in my childhood when we didn’t have at least one dog in our household. There are actually a few dog posts of my own that I’ll upload in the future, but until then I’ve added my reply to Dad and Ray’s email thread below.
Dad’s September 5, 2007 email read:
Hello Everyone,
Speaking of ghosts being raised by memories, start with the fact that the majestic canine depicted with the three precious children is not “King”, at least he is not “The King.” I think her name was “Princess” and was given to us by Earnest Blanks after we moved to Germantown Road in Dayton, Ohio. We also, of course, had Duchess, shown with Mom in one of the other photographs. I’m not sure when or how we came by Duchess, but she was a big favorite with all.
The picture of the King “imposter” was clearly taken when Ernesta was 4 to 6 months old, which makes it about September 1955. When we left Ohio in 1963 we did not take any pets with us because we didn’t have a place in NJ where we could keep a pet until we moved to 49 Melrose Ave in East Orange, NJ in 1964 before the start of the school year. I don’t recall exactly when or where we acquired King, but King was the Monarch who ruled unchallenged until he became so ill and old that we had to have him put down sometime in the mid-eighties. For a while before then, the house was shared with Honey who came to the King Household shortly after Ernesta’s high school graduation in 1973. Honey remained with us until Mom and I moved to Painted Post in 1987.
There are several King and other pet stories I’ll share later on; better still, maybe one of you would like to tell your favorite story about anyone of our canine family members.
Dad
My September 6, 2007 reply read in part:
I agree, that can’t be King because King didn’t join the family until we were in NJ. I have baby pictures of me that show King as a young Prince. King died much earlier then the mid 80’s – Danny wasn’t born until ’79, and King died when I was still in Jr. High School. That would have been around ’75.
That makes sense because King and I shared our puppyhood together, and he lived into his early teens.