The Last of Princess

Over three months after Princess came to our house, three months after I had notified her owners of her whereabouts, and one day after we had buried my grandmother, Princess’s owners came by our house to take her back. That POS knew damn well that we just had a funeral, there were cars everywhere. She would have to be dead from the neck up not to have realized that there was a death in the family. What that owner did along with her timing was a kick in the teeth. We thought the owners had abandoned their dog, and we had become attached to that Princess.

I can still hear the owner’s scratchy, whiney, country-ass voice right now. She was the kind of person who spoke at you, not to you, and she spoke in the same volume regardless if she were outside or in - loudly.

I didn’t know much about her except for the way she treated her dog, which wasn’t well. She was the kind of owner that kept the dog in a runner out in the back along with a bowl of food and water. Princess would escape from her cage from time to time, though I don’t know why she would want to do that. Princess would chase and harass neighbors walking by her yard. She even came close to biting me a few days when I was out running. Fortunately, I had quick reflexes and was able to turn around and confront her by the time she was able to get to me. The garbage man, at another time, was not so lucky. She bit him.

Something else which stood out to me about how poorly Princess was treated was on a particularly cold day when the highs barely made it into the 20’s and the lows were supposed to get into the single digits. Princess was scratching at some dried out leaves trying to make a ‘nest’ in an attempt to stay warm. For someone to leave a short haired dog like that out in those conditions was negligent, irresponsible and cruel. I came very close to a calling animal control that day, but I didn’t. I hate to be the nosy, busy-body type, but looking back, it was something I should have done.

I didn’t like the owner. For some reason, I don’t think she didn’t like us, but for the sake of decency and civility, I will not disclose why I think she didn’t like us. The woman was a bad dog owner. She let her dog stay at a neighbors for several months, didn’t give much attention to the dog in the first place and didn’t’ take care of the dog’s health needs. A few months after Princess was reclaimed, she made an escape and came straight to our house. I noticed two shaved out rectangular patches in her back indicative of her being treated for heartworms. Heartworms is an easily preventable disease involving yearly check-ups and monthly pills, but the owners wouldn’t even do that for their dog. Instead, Princess had to suffer through a very painful heartworm treatment regimen.

On Princess’s last day with us, the owner called her over. Reluctantly and with her head hanging down, Princess skulked away from us to her owner. Princess would visit us from time to time after that whenever she escaped, but we had to turn our backs to her. I know she was confused and hurt, but it had to be done.