The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-25
PETS OF QUEEN ALEXANDRA
DOGS, HORSES AND BIRDS IN LUX
 URY AT SANDRIRGHAM.

QueenS Nisits 10 Ihem m-Horses tE
 Fine Quarters-The Bant ms and tn,
 Doves Disgrace og One-Hundred. Year-Oid Cockatoo.
 | Queen Alexandra has a catholic taste
 in pets, and her four-footed and feath-
 cred friends at Sandringham range all i the way from Arab steeds to centenari-
 an cockatoos Her kennels are famous
 and her dogs have won laurels at many
 bench show.
 They live as royal dogs should, not in i enervating ease and luxury, but ac- cording to the best precepts and train-
 ing that money and experience can sup I ply. To be sure, Billy and Punchy do
 have silk cushions in the royal dressing
 room and are more or less coddled but
 they are Japanese spaniels and too i small to be taken seriously
 Out in the Queens kennels there are ! all sorts and conditions of dogs, many
 of them gifts to the queen; others bred at Sandringham. The crowd is as cos mopolitan as is a table d'hote at for eign spa. . The Chinese chow dogs. one of the queens latest fads, talk Chinese to the
 gaunt Siberian wolfhounds The
 French poodles f1irt with the fox ter
 riers. Collies, Newfoundlands, dach- shunds, bassets, spaniels, bloodhounds, all bay at moon together.
 Of course there are favorites. AliX, a splendid Russian hound and winner of
 innumerable prizes, is perhaps the best known dog of the kennels. He has of ten had his photograph taken with the
 queen and has posed for number of oil portraits, but he's a modest unas- suming celebrity. j.
 Lochiel, collie, is another of the queens special favorites, and there's feeling among his kennel companions that he gets more than his share of walking with the queen; but the royal mistress tries to be impartial and al- lows the dogs to share her outings in turn, sometimes taking ten or twelve dogs with her when she goes for a walk.
 MT Brundson has for many years had entire charge of Queen Alexandra's pets; but, once or twice a week, she herself makes the rounds of the kennels She puts on big white apron, takes baskets of bread and begins her visits.
 Pandemonium is turned loose, for ev- cry dog in the kennels adores her and bursts into enthusiastic welcomes at the sound of her voice. The most stub born and unmanageable of the big dogs obeys her slightest word and she hasn't an idea of what the word fear means in connection with dogs.
 Each kennel has an inner room sup piled with an iron bedstead and straw mattress. Adjoining this room IS an open room, furnished with fresh straw and water.
 Every sanitary precaution is taken. The kennels are built round a central yard and behind them are liberal grass runs. A kennel kitchen, where meals for the dogs are boiled in huge copper pots and larder filled with oatmeal biscuits and other supplies adjoin the kennels.
 There is a big bathhouse too; and, at stated intervals, each dog is vigorously rubbed Meal hours are absolutely regular. The big dogs have one meal day, the little dogs two meals, and each dog is exercised as religiously as in training.
 Two hours is the allotted time for eX- ercise and the hounds start the ball rolling at six o'clock in the morning. The bassetts have their turn next, and i so it goes, until, late in the day, the small dogs are punched under the head of miscellanes and taken out together. <
 There is a dog hospital in the ken 1, I1I: :rr1,4 .Ja.. R.4 I with invalid comforts, and discreetly . retired so that it may not dampen the spirits of the cheerful living, also q dog 1. where any dog that falls by | way is sure of a green plot and tomb- stone appropriately inscribed.
 The queen is as fond of her stables as of her kennels. They were built espec- ally for her and are picturesque build ngs around g very large court. The in side walls are covered with white glazed tiling and each stall bears the royal coat of arms and handsome brass while the name of the horse appears in brass mounted on red and blue above each manager.
 The sanctum sanctorum of the stables dedicated to the queens favorite horses 1as silver fittings. Here are kept in stalls her four driving ponies, Bena, 3ean Merry Antics and Belle Stable gossip has it that Bena and Beau sport alse tails; but that may be taradiddle started by the envious tandem ponies Mite and Puffy, or by the ill-natured Deacon who bellies his name by being he most vicious brute in the stables.
 The queen was fearless and enthusi- stic rider in earlier days, hunting in ,ood and bad weather, over any sort of ountry.
 She now prefers driving to riding, be- ng an excellent whip Her motor car ( as not won it's way to her favor and ( hough she uses it sometimes, she all ways takes some one with her to run he motor. j The harness room at the stables ,. makes a fine showing of saddles and i andsome riding whips and crops. a 'here, too, are a host of souvenirs of cad and gone equine friends. chief S mong them beautiful model of Vira, s he riding hack, who was for years a | rime favorite of the queen. a In the old days two bears were among s 'ueen Alexandra's pets, but they have cen eXiled and a collection of hantams as their place. The bantams also verfloW into the kings pheasantry,