a bitch today sets a great example

We met Frederick the Great a few days ago, mourning the death of his dog Biche. Let us go to a happier time with him, when his greyhound Diane (all his greyhounds were female) had puppies. He wrote his sister Wilhelmine about it, of course -- he wrote her about everything. She must have been thinking of having a baby herself, for he wrote his puppy announcement in Diane's own voice, as follows:

A bitch today sets a great example.
I have had two little ones;
All the curious who come to see them
Find them beautiful like me, well-made and kind,
Be god-mother at their christening,
And my wishes will be fulfilled,
If, Madam, you shortly follow suit.
-- Katherine MacDonough again, p. 185.

Wilhelmine did have one child, a daughter named Elisabeth, whom Casanova thought to be the most beautiful girl in Germany.