1740 and All That

felis: I had a look at some dog-related items in the box bills, non-exhaustive, as I mostly just glanced at the entries tagged with "keeping of animals", which is not used consistently.

Entries that show up regularly: "Bälle für die Hunde" - payed to the cobbler, so balls made out of leather for them to play with I'd say, always for a couple of Rthl - and monthly salaries for various hunters (Leibjäger) over the years, for raising and feeding the dogs I suspect (there's one 1765 entry that specifies "Futtergeld").

We also find clothes and cushions:

October 1763: for the dress for little Biche, 17 th 4 gr
February 1765: to Füchsel [= the tailor] for a dress for the little dog 5 th, 10 gr
September 1767: six cushions ["Küßen"] for the dogs 46 th 19 gr
Aug 1771: two new cushions ["Kopf Küssen"] made of real carmine taffeta for Thisbe, 8 RTl 2 Gr
February 1784: to the bed girls ["BettMädgens"] for mending the cushions for the Royal dogs, 12 Gr

As you can see, there's a mention of "Biche" in 1763, which has to have been Biche II (which I didn't know existed)? (My other thought was that the people keeping the book might have used the dog names interchangeably, but that's quite an out there theory.)

But speaking of the original and much beloved Biche, I was surprised to see that even two years after her death in December 1751, there was still money to pay:

Nov/Dez 1752: to a musketeer from the Itzenplitz regiment, gifted to him because of Biche 5 th [no further explanation]
April 1753: to cook Hellmundt for expenses during Biche's lifetime 11 th 12 gr
Nov 1753: Kienast can still demand medicinal expenses [Medizingeld] for the deceased Biche [spelled "Bigé"] 6 th 8 gr

And speaking of treating sick dogs, there's more like it as well:
December 1766: to Ruckhafer for curing the dog 11 th 2 Gr

I'll leave all the headstone and burial-related entries for another day, but suffice to say, I'm now even more confused when it comes to the dog names. :P

But while I was checking the "keeping of animals" tag - did Fritz plan a zoo at some point? Because in May 1746, he apparently acquired a rhino (!? - dem Holländer ("Hollender") für das Rhinozeros ("den Rinoceros") 12 Dukaten + 6 Dukaten) and reindeer (dem Oberjägermeister Graf von Schlieben für die schwedischen Leute, welche die Rentiere ("Rent-thier") gebracht 135 thaler).

Also, I seem to remember some mention that he stopped keeping monkeys because they didn't like the cold climate, but if so, it must have been after 1746, because between July 1742 and December 1746, there are several expenses for the feeding and keeping of the "royal monkeys", who had their own keeper called Hillebrandt (who seems to have been responsible for the fires as well, at least he's called a "Stubenhitzer" in one entry).

( Clara the traveling rhinoceros )

( Canine burial expenses )

( Just when did Biche die, anyway? )

( Canine sartorial choices )