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Frank Sinatra, who was born 100 years ago today, didn’t just love the ladies (and vice versa) — he was also very fond of dogs, according to several sources. Who knows, maybe Ol’ Blue Eyes was thinking about sharing his bed with his pooches when he sang “Strangers in the Night.”
According to the official Frank Sinatra Facebook page, his mom didn’t allow him to have a dog when he was a kid, “but he made up for that later in life by having many!”
“He liked animals, period. Particularly underdogs,” his widow, Barbara, told the Palm Beach Post in 2011. The Sinatras had dogs, cats and horses.
“I found a snake in the yard one day and I called the gardener to kill it,” Barbara recalled. “Frank said, ‘No, no, he’s a friend of mine.’ So he threw it over the fence onto the golf course. He was very softhearted.”
Sinatra had an especially soft spot for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
“He absolutely adored them,” Barbara told the Palm Beach Post. “When he was sick in his room, he’d have the cats on one side of the bed, and the dogs on the other. And he would pet them both.”
In her memoir, “My Father’s Daughter,” Tina Sinatra recalls that when she was a little girl and asked her dad where heaven was, he replied, “Heaven is where all the animals go.”
When Sinatra died in 1998, several mementos were placed in his coffin.
“My contribution was a small dog biscuit, for Dad’s love of little critters,” Tina wrote.
I wish Sinatra a very happy birthday. I’m a huge fan of his, as was my mom, who as a teenage bobby-soxer ditched high school to see her idol perform at the Chicago Theater. “The Summer Wind” was one of her favorite Sinatra tunes, and I can fondly recall her and my dad (a non-fan who called Frank “Snotnose,” LOL) slow-dancing to it on the living room floor. I’d like to dedicate this to the memory of all three of them.
Rest in peace, Ol’ Blue Eyes, up there where all the animals go.