This may come to a complete shock to all of my loyal fans, but The Princess is forced to live "on the kindness of others"    My Gram says she thinks that may be a movie line.    What it DOES mean is that The Princess is broke.

I had been saving some of my pennies so that at some point in time I could go to DisneyLand with a few of my friends who play football, but somehow my piggy bank took a vicious blow to the side of his little head and my pennies were scattered to the winds.    Gone.   All nine of them.    Obviously the DisneyLand trip is going to take place far in the future.

So, bottom line.   Nothing.  Nada.   And today is Father's Day, a special day for celebrating Father's.    And the Princess has nothing with which to purchase a gift for her very special Pop.    This is, as far as I can see, totally depressing.

I asked my Gram if we could make a present from some of the many pounds of scrapbooking items in plastic containers stored in our garage.    Gram said, first off, we would have to find them, and she has a general idea which stack they are in, but Good Luck.    Obviously, my Mom has not been doing anything in her Book of Scraps for quite some time.   

Then I suggested that we find a beautiful photo of me, The Princess, and get it framed nicely to give to my Pop.  My Gram looked at me as if my memory was as awful as her's is.   "Daisy Girl", she said, "first we would have to print the picture, but then we would have to go to the store and purchase the framing material, and the way I see it we are back at Step One on that idea."     Yep.    Gram is correct.  No money.

Then Gram came forth with a wonderful idea.   Let's just write about my Pop in my Blog.   Words are free, Gram says.    Indeed that may be true sometimes, but to me this sounds like a really big topic that could open up a can of garden worms, but we won't go there.    Let's talk about my Dad.

My Dad wasn't too terribly keen on having a dog in his life, especially one with a huge head and small body which caused that same baby bulldog (me) to tip over on a regular basis.   And, if the truth be told, I was not at all attractive.    But at some point something popped in my Pop's head (and heart) - and yes, pun intended - he fell in love with The Princess.     I was not a true Princess at the time, but it wasn't too much later that I accepted my royal status.

So once my Dad was smitten, he has become one great Dad, believe you me.     Let's get to the Short List (you know - the kind of list that Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain are currently working on):

1.  My Dad does not get angry when I have an accident in the bed in the middle of the night.   (as my friends know, I am ill, and peeing in the night time is not my fault...it is drug induced)

2.  My Dad cooks me my own private stash of chicken, which is very delicious.   It is one of the few foods I feel like eating because of my illness, so he makes sure I have a lot of it.

3.  My Dad allows me to sit on the back porch when his "buddies" are over and whereas I cannot be allowed to actually smoke a cigar, I go into the house stinking exactly like one (per my Mom).  This makes me think of my family heritage in Merry Ole' England.

4.  My Dad turns his head the other way when I wander in the asparagas patch, even though I usually help myself to a few tasty tops that have just broken ground.     Actually, this year in our garden, my Dad is letting the asparagas have a vacation, so I got a lot of tasty tops and I didn't need to be sneaky about it.    It wasn't as much fun, so I'm waiting till next year.

5.  The Gator Machine.    Even though Bob, The Stupid-Head, is terrified of the Gator, I love, love, love it and my Dad allows me to ride upon it when he is playing farmer at our house, or sometimes when we go for the mail.   The Gator is a wonderful invention from some man named Deere and I love feeling the breeze blow through my fur and making my cheeks puff out.  My Gram says I should have a seat belt, but get real!  I'm a Country Dog now, Gram.    You and Bob just stay home in his crate!

6.  Last, but surely, not least.  Cherry Pie.    Yesterday my Dad climbed all over our very own cherry tree and picked a huge container full of beautiful ripe cherries.   And then (and this is the best part).  Out came the bowls, the pans, the mixer and some helpful other ingredients and the result is a Very Tremendous Cherry Pie sitting on our window sill.      And I know, deep in my heart that even though pie is not truly healthy for dogs, that my wonderful Dad is going to let me have my very own slice (small) of that Cherry Pie.   

So based upon this very short list, you can tell how much my Dad loves me, and as a result, how much I love him.   Gram says there is not enough money in the entire world to buy a gift of loving that is this large and that comes straight from my heart.    And even though my heart is a little bit damaged right now, it still works when it comes to all the important things, so I know my Gram is right.

Thanks for being my Dad, and Happy Day To You!

Your Girl,
Daisy