Three months ago, prince Laurent of Belgium had the dead body of his favourite dog frozen. The prince was upset by the death of the Berner Senner and wanted to wait until an appropriate time, to say goodbye to the dog.
click on image to see photo at nieuwslog.nl
The Swiss dog was his favourite for seven years, and died of cancer. After his death the prince took the body to the veterinary medicine faculty of the university of Gent. At the university they froze the body, until the prince found the time ripe to say goodbye to his dog. On thursday, a few days before all saints, the prince thought that the time was ripe, the prince told public channel VRT through the telephone.
According to professor Chiers, of the university of Gent, several limbs of the dog were deformed because the body was frozen on the flat floor. When the prince announced that he wanted to collect the dog, the staff had to hurry to dry the hairs and bend the body in the original shape. When the prince arrived, the staff had to leave as the prince was quite emotional and wanted to be left alone with his dog.
In a reaction on the VRT the prince said that there is too little attention for the role that pets play in our daily lives. ‘People are very attached to their pets, when they die it hurts’, says Laurent. ‘All Saints is a day to pay attention to that’.
Marengo Belgian Royals Animals, Pets, Prince Laurent
Today 13 new pictures of the Crown Princely family were published at kongehuset.no.
It shows Prince Haakon, his wife Mette-Marit , the three children Marius, Ingrid Alexandra and Sverre Magnus and family’s new puppy.
You can find a gallery at kongehuset.no
The pictures for this year’s summer session were taken on Saturday, June 27th at Bygdøy, the royal summer residence of King Harald.
The family’s new dog, a 4 months old labradoodle, is named Milly Kakao.
You can find HQ pictures of the summer session in the press photo album at kongehuset.no.
Picture from TRF Avatar Gallery
More links to articles and pictures can be found in this thread: Summer Photosession 2009.
You can find a thread about the Norwegian Royals’ summer vacations here: Summer Vacations 2009.
The King and Queen spend their vacations in Mågerø; their summer residence.
Family Behn spend their vacations in Hankø.
The Royals will return to duty on 7th of August.
Her_Majesty Norwegian Royals Animals, Marius Borg Høiby, Pets, Prince Haakon, Prince Sverre Magnus, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Princess Mette-Marit
Evita, the 11-year-old dauchshund of Prince Henrik, has biten a royal bodyguard, leaving the man in hospital needing stitches and a tetanus shot.
Click to read the article from Berlingske
The incident occured on Saturday May 30th, when the guard was walking Evita around the gardens of the Danish royal summer residence, Fredensborg Palace.
This latest occurance has caused Danish opposition members to call for Evita to be euthanised. “There is no difference between a royal dog and any other,” Bjarne Laustsen – the Social Democrats animal welfare spokesman – told BT.
The issue that arises with this call is that the Danish royal family, and its pets, are above the law. “We can not just roar out and interrogate Prince Henrik, or for that matter, prosecute him. But we got a notification, and we will obviously look at it,” political advocate Helle Just said when interviewed by BT. She said that it might be possible that it is requested for Evita to be examined by a dog psychologist.
In February 2008, another of Prince Henrik’s dauchshunds bit Nikolaj Fogh, a palace gardener. Fogh had to take three weeks off, on doctor’s orders, to recover from his injuries.
Click here to follow the case in Henrik’s current events thread.
JessRulz Danish Royals Animals, Pets, Prince Henrik the Prince Consort
Click to see the photo at the Daily Mail
The days of the dominance of the royal corgis may have come to an end. The Daily Mail is reporting that the Queen has decided to stop breeding corgis. Recently, the Queen lost two corgis to cancer, and allegedly she is so devastated by the loss that she will not be replacing her dogs. There seems to be some discrepancy as to how many corgis and dorgis (corgi-dachshund crosses) that the Queen now owns; one article says that there are now seven dogs.
Additionally, none of the other members of the Royal Family are fond of corgis, and if the Queen were to be survived by a doggie herd, it may prove difficult to find a comfortable home for her aging pets. Prince Philip, who has shared royal quarters with corgis since 1947, is known to have complained that the Queen kept too many dogs. Princess Michael, the only royal known to favor cats, said she sometimes felt like shooting the dogs (the Queen commented that the dogs behaved better than Princess Michael, although that comment probably applies to other members of the family as well). Other royals prefer other breeds of dogs. Read more…
iowabelle British Royals Corgis, Elizabeth II, Pets
Click here to read the article at royalblog
Last weekend, on a trip to the imperial ranch outside Tokyo, Princess Aiko, only daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako of Japan, happily showed her new puppy, Yuri, to the public. Princess Aiko entered the second grade at Gakushuin Primary School this April.
Sometime this year, Mari, one of the two dogs of the crown prince´s family, died. The dogs Mari and Pippi had already been living for many years with the crown couple, before Aiko was even born. In 1995, a stray dog had been found on the grounds of the Togu Palace where the family lives: the mother of Pippi and Mari. The childless crown couple took care of the little puppies, as soon as they were born, and grew very fond of them. In summer 2003, when the crown princess was already fighting against a looming depression (at that time still unbeknownst to the public) she said that “living with our two dogs Pippi and Mari … has always calmed and rejuvenated my spirit.” The two dogs were treated just like beloved family members. Read more…
ChiaraC Japanese Royals Animals, Pets, Prince Naruhito, Princess Aiko, Princess Masako
