Our family dogs on Lower Saranac Lake in the 1970s. The pedigreed Samoyeds shown here we had bought from Dr. Richard Handler. The female is in front, then the gray/silver “Alaskan Husky,” so-called, and with two blue eyes, was one of the first of that breed and was a stray we inherited. The male Samoyed, Kincaid, had a special harness and he used to take me cross-country skiing.

We could go on all day long about our own, or friends’, stories about the sad details that surround the death of a pet dog and how we suffer from that loss. But how about the dog’s side of the story when they lose their master? My Uncle Tom and Aunt Eunice Riley had a huge 4,000-acre ranch one mile south of Carmel, California. They owned brother and sister Border Collies who were always with them.

When Aunt Eunice died, her dog would never enter the house again, so Uncle Tom gave the dog to one of the ranch hands who lived on the property.

This story, however, is about “Lady,” a Saranac Lake dog owned by Mr. and Mrs. Gordon and Margaret Young Partridge who lived in a stately house at 15 South St. Their daughters are Mrs. Mary Peria and Mrs. Martha Wilke.

Gordon was manager of the Adirondack National Bank and Trust Company, later merged with Marine Midland Bank, of which he became vice-president, and he was president of the Saranac Lake Golf Club.

I did not know Mr. Partridge personally, but I remember that he was always impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, much like the TV anchors of today, looking like the clothes had never been worn before. Mr. Partridge died suddenly in 1969 at age 66 shortly after retiring.The obituaries in the Enterprise at that time actually told how the person died.

“Mr. Partridge died suddenly this morning at his home just before 8 a.m. He had played golf yesterday and intended to play again today. However, he did not feel well this morning and Dr. Bradley Sageman was called. He seemed to be much better and was chatting at the table with Dr. Sageman when he suddenly felt dizzy and died of a heart attack.”

Thanks to Mary Peria, I have the following story:

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The lady is no tramp

–

By Howard Riley

(Enterprise, December 1969)

“A lady was standing in front of The Enterprise this morning where she stands almost every morning looking toward the front door, wagging her tail and barking.

“The Lady is as well known as any Main Street merchant. She keeps regular hours during the working week at Marine Midland next door to The Enterprise.

“She is a faithful dog, perhaps still hoping that her late master Gordon Partridge is somehow, some day going to show up at the office.

“Ronnie Leahy, head man at the bank doesn’t seem to mind sharing the office with Lady, who of course, doesn’t spend all day in there. She has a certain number of stops along Main Street where she gets petted and fed and talked about.

“Only once in a while now is she able to get up that high step in front of this office. Lady is quite old, bothered by some aliment of the legs and there has been talk about building a ramp for Lady to use. Sometimes she will allow a helping hand but this morning when I put my arms around her to lift her she decided it wasn’t worth it just to get a biscuit from Rose Dest so she headed back to the bank.

“I have often seen Mrs. Partridge drive up in front of the bank late in the day to bring Lady back home. Like the most pampered banker on Wall Street, Mrs. Partridge must open the back door and help Lady into the car where she then sits like a wealthy dowager looking out the back window as she is chauffeured home in her limousine.

“I don’t know how old Lady is now. Somehow I have the idea that she is one of a batch of puppies (mostly Collie) that were born to a dog owned by Art Higgins when he was at the bank here. I had been looking for a puppy and had just gotten one when Art called and offered me one.This must have been sometime in 1957 after the Russian’s put their famous dog “Sputnik” in space because the family named our new pet “Rinnie Van Sputnik” just to throw a little class into the name.

“Some mornings at the paper when a high-level conference was going on everything would have to cease until Lady had her goodies because she would stand by Rose’s desk and bark and wag her tail until she was waited on.

“She is a true lady and all her Main Street friends wish her a Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year.

“That dog is so smart that some of the gang were thinking about getting her a snowmobile to drive to work but the restriction on the machines by the Village Board killed that brainstorm.”