I have found two versions of the original recordings of “The Dog Prince”, but am too embarrassed to listen to them. The memories of those days are far too traumatic for me to endure right now, but maybe I will tell the story again from the other side someday.
Listen to them for me and decide which you think is best if you like the story enough to listen to the end. I’m not sure what the difference is. Maybe a few weeks or so?
The original written version of The Dog Prince (illustrations tbd):
Once upon a time, in a world ruled by cats and dogs there was a dog that was known as “The Dog Prince”. Now, he wasn’t always known as this. He used to be known as Roger. No one calls him Roger anymore though. It’s usually “your highness”, “your majesty”…. “your wagginess”, you know, something like that, and I’ll tell you why, but first let me tell you about the world in which he lived.
It was very much like the world we live in. They were dogs and cats yes, but they were very intelligent and they lived in harmony with each other. They had radios and telephones, animals in little blue uniforms that would deliver packages and letters to their doors, and they would go to restaurants, and everything else too. The only difference between the Dog and Cat world and our own, was the way it was ruled. You see, the dogs and the cats elected a King and Queen every five years as well as all of the other court officials in their royal government.
They had a marvelous castle with spires and flags and an enormous bell that would ring once a day at noon and silence all the other noises of the kingdom. Anyway, they lived happily together, these dogs and cats, and their world was successful and they were constantly improving themselves with good attitudes and a strong work ethic.
Well, it just so happened that there was an election coming up for a new King this year, and then a new Queen the next year. The King and Queen weren’t always married, but it was always their responsibility to work together to make the best decisions for the people. This land was fairly new. It had only been around a couple hundred years and in that time, there had only been cat Kings and cat Queens. It wasn’t designed that only cats could become King or Queen, that was just the way it was. Maybe it’s because there were more cats than dogs, maybe because they were more involved in the governing of things, the fact of the matter is, that for hundreds of years, the nation thrived under the rule of cats.
Well Roger was a dog. Not only was he a dog, but he was a good dog. Roger would happily work with dogs and cats to help make their community a better place. He was always friendly and willing to play, he loved to be petted, and his tail was wagging non stop. He was a good dog. He was smart too and knew a lot of tricks that a lot of other animals didn’t know. Roger was just doing his best to be happy, because being the best dog he could be was what made him happy.
Well, he was so good and so well liked that animals would often tell other animals about him and then they would ask for his help with little things. Before Roger knew it, he knew a lot of people all over the land. Now, as it started getting toward the election of the new King and Queen, Roger learned that a dog had never been the King before. Now this didn’t trouble him. He did not want to be King. He thought cats did a fine job ruling, but he couldn’t help but wonder why it was that way.
There came the time to announce who was going to run to be the new King and Queen, and the animals liked Roger so much that they thought he should do it. His friends thought that he would make a great King. Reluctantly, he agreed, finally realizing that being King was a great way to help more people and do more good acts. That is when they started calling him “The Dog Prince.”
It was all well and good, but there were some cats who were very upset about this. They saw how well liked the Dog Prince was and there was a real chance of him becoming King. They did not want this to happen. They didn’t outright stop him, but they had ways to make life difficult. Like mail getting lost, or construction blocking the roads to his next demonstration, or spotty wifi connections. Still the Dog Prince persevered.
When the day for the election came, The Dog Prince and his cat opponent were waiting in the courthouse for the last ballot to be read. It was a tie up until now, and this last vote was going to decide which one was going to be King. It was very exciting for a lot of people, and terrifying for some too. The former King, who was reading the ballots, looked scared for some reason, as if he was afraid of what was going to happen and that there was nothing he could do about it. It had become very important to all the citizens of the kingdom that a dog become King, but it also meant a lot would change would happen. Many of the cats and dogs were afraid of that change. Not the Dog Prince though, he believed those changes were right.
When they read the last ballot, we all know already who became King, and soon The Dog Prince was knighted by the high council and given the crown and scepter by which he would rule. Though there was a lot of anxiety about the Dog Prince becoming the king, it went over rather smoothly. There was a gift box of bones that was discovered to have deadly poison all over them, but his team discovered it and took care of it so well that no one was hurt or given even the slightest stomach ache.
The Dog King now was in charge of the entire kingdom and he saw all the little ways that it could be better. From his throne he learned about matters that he had not known existed or could do nothing about, until he became King. He made a lot of changes to the kingdom. He changed the way programs were run and it was very upsetting to a lot of animals that had been in charge of them for a long time. He only meant the best, but sometimes to make life better, you have to take some things out and put new things in.
There was some fighting with some of those organizations that needed changing, but the Dog King was so good, that he always found a way to do what was right. In the end of his rule, he had completely changed the kingdom in a lot of noticeable ways. The schools were better, the air was cleaner, the people were richer, and he had even fallen in love with the Dog Princess who became queen the next year- but that is a story for a different time.
The point is, that even though there had not been a Dog King before, and that there had been some dogs and cats who really did not want it to happen, The Dog Prince was such a good and helpful dog that he was chosen by the people for the job. He had to make some changes that upset a small amount of important cats and dogs, but when he was through, it turned out to be much better, and even those dogs and cats he had upset were now much happier. In a way, he changed the entire world just by wanting to be a good dog.