Community Corner

For Princess, It's a Happy Holiday

It was a tough year for the young Staffordshire Terrier who was stabbed 29 times by a former owner in Hamden, but things are definitely looking up.

 

Six months ago, , was sitting in a local animal hospital, recovering from 29 stab wounds.

Today she has settled in nicely into her new home in Hamden with a new owner who adores her.

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In May, Hamden police rushed Princess to the after finding her with 29 stab wounds. They arrested her owner, Alexander Bernard of New Haven, on animal cruelty charges.

The case took months winding its way through the judicial system, with several strange twists. Bernard was initially found incompetent but then deemed competent to stand trial. He refused a plea deal that would have resulted in his immediate release from jail. Ultimately he pleaded guilty under the Alfred Doctrine and sentenced to a year in jail, suspended after four months, and supervision after his release.

Find out what's happening in Hamdenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Things have gone more smoothly for Princess, who spent about four months recovering at the vet and then was transfered to the North Haven Animal Shelter, where homeless Hamden dogs are housed.

But now she's out and in her new home with her new owner, Diane Pearce, and has a new canine best friend, Max, a four-year-old beagle who lives next door.

When she first came home she was a bit skittish, Pearce said, but got over that in a matter of hours.

"She slept on my bed the first night," Pearce said, and has been a fixture there every night since.

"She looks like nothing ever happened to her -- she's happy as a clam," Pearce said Tuesday afternoon outside her home while Princess frolicked with Max. She enjoys the Hamden Dog Park and they go there several times a week, Pierce said.

"She loves the other dogs," she said, and shows no aggression.

Pearce learned about Princess from her vet, Dr. James Wells, who treated the dog after th stabbing attack. Pearce has recently lost her own Staffordshire Terrier to cancer and was interested in adopting another, so the match appeared perfect.

"I knew I wanted another female Staffordshire Terrier, and the vet knew I wanted one," she said. "They showed her to me on my mother's birthday and I immediately knew she was the one.

"They took wonderful care of her," Pearce said of the animal hospital. She was probably ready to go home long before she did, Pearce said, but had to be held as the case against Bernard progressed.

Though she was thought to be fearful of men, she loves Max's owner Ken Fanning, Pearce said.

Princess is still full of energy, Pearce said, which is understandable for such a young dog. But she isn't nervous at all and shows no lingering after affects from the attack.

"She's now just a happy, content dog," she said.

Previous Hamden Patch stories on the stabbing of Princess:


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