It was exactly two weeks after my eighth birthday August 20 1976. I awoke early that morning. It was the day I was to receive my last birthday present.
Out into the cold and foggy morning at 6:30am the four of us jumped into the car wrapped ourselves in blankets and drove the four miles into town. My sister and I were cuddled in a warm red blanket in the back seat. I had a very queasy feeling and everyone knew why. My present was a puppy. A black miniature French poodle puppy.
We arrived at the house on the corner of Delaware and Linden Street about ten minutes later. It was an average sized gray house with an off-white base. It had a small porch with three steps leading to it and it was surrounded by flowers and shrubs.
After Dad parked the car in front of the house he and Mom walked up to it knocked on the door and were invited inside. My sister and I remained in the car because we weren’t sure if we should go in yet. We might have scared the puppy. The lady we were buying the puppy from was a co-worker of Dad’s. A few minutes later signaling with the wave of her hand Mom invited us both inside the house.
As I walked in the door I spotted two tiny masses of black fur scampering around the room. I sat down and watched the two puppies one of which was to be mine. They were playing with a ball. After a tad I gently picked up my new puppy and cuddled him in my arms for the first time. What an experience!
I was overwhelmed by my puppy. He laid so calm and his fur was so soft that I immediately fell in love with him! While I was admiring and comforting my puppy my parents were signing all the necessary pet papers such as pedigrees.
An hour had passed and I was anxious to take my new puppy home. I was the first to sit down in the car. Mom was holding him so I could put him on my lap easier. He was shaking tremendously due to leaving his home and going into the cold morning air. I wrapped him in the red blanket as much as I could while leaving some for me. It wasn’t a very big blanket. I hugged him all the way home.
Once in our driveway I carried my puppy into his new house and home. I gently put him down and watched as he sniffed around. Dad was busy making a cardboard box bed for him to sleep in. He made it at least four times his size so he could stretch out and so we could put lots of blankets in for his comfort.
By that afternoon I decided that my puppy should have a name. Everyone including me wanted a different name. Rather than fighting about it we put all the names into a hat and picked one. After picking three names Happy Prince and Pierre only three of us were happy. My sister and my parents. It was my puppy so I chose Happiness as a name. My sister liked Happy. My mom liked Pierre and my dad liked Prince.
We discussed it and finally came up with a name that everyone was “happy” with.
Happiness is Prince Pierre. We call him Happy for short.
Written by CLZ
Way back when..in 1984 for a school paper on favorite childhood experience
He was my dream come true!
I miss him!
Christina
| Happy |
| 23, April 1994 |
| Christina |