Do I LOOK Scary?

The laughing cavalier

I once read that there is only one creature which has NEVER been known to evoke a phobia in a human being; apparantly there is no medical case on record in which the humble, harmless, bleating lamb has ever been known to peturb a human mind. "Ha!" I would've have said with a toss of my curls, "the author who wrote THAT had obviously never heard of a cavalier king charles spaniel." Until Friday night....

My mum had arrived home late. Late and tired. Oh dear. this didn't bode well. Half past eight and I hadn't even been fed yet. And then there is always the worry - that she might sink down onto the sofa and fall asleep. Forgetting to feed me AND depriving me of a comfy sleeping place! Not that this has ever happened yet, but you never know. It is any self respecting CKSs deep abiding fear that one evening he may be required to go without dinner...

So mummy receives a phone call and the words ' auntie Gabrielle' are mentioned. Yaayyy we're off! And yayyyy I've eaten first. My Elysium, mon paradis sur Terre is not far - you see I KNOW where we're going. Yes I can feel it in the air - tonight is a Le Temps des Cerises night!!

Our Goal to be found a short walk-stopping only for alternate lampposts sniff stops, (I only stop for five minutes at every SECOND one I'm not an UNREASONABLE pup); and of course I do have just the little short chats with new friends along the way - of no more than ten minutes or so duration each one - I was in a HURRY - I mean of course I don't inlcude the times when I have to lie down in the road for a bit; just to check if my paws are still looking good, and in general to ponder things; My mum has taken to calling me her little Pondercherry. She thinks its funny.

So in no time at all we're there. Ah, bliss, we have arrived at .....Le Temps des Cerises (my favourite little restaurant in the world run by the Madeleine and Jean Paul ! Yes yes my doggieblog title is well named, for indeed it IS the Time of the Cherries. I make my dramatic entrance, and rush straight to Bliss on Earth otherwise known as Jean Paul's Kitchen. And yes HE has seen me and His arms are open. As I gallop towards them, I am aware of a squeak somewhere to my left but nothing serious enough to distract me from the delights that await me. But lo as, all smiles, I greet Jean Paul and ask how He is, and how His pasta and ham are, I am vaguely aware that my mum is having a serious conversation with a woman who it seems is the author of the said squeak who has since vacated her table for a position as close to the wall as she can manage the furtherest possible from - ME! Huh! I mean do I LOOK like a tarantula? The woman is begging my mum to leash me, keep me under control; she's cringing against the wall. Her boyfriend is nodding seriously.

Hhhmmm it seems that the author HAD heard of CKSs; and would you credit it, there I am obliged to spend the rest of the evening quietly by my mum's side, on leash, and even need to be pulled to a far corner by Auntie Gabrielle and Mum as the chick - as Auntie Gabrielle would say - later makes her exit into the night. Ignoble I feel. But Jean Paul DOES bring me a lovely big bowl of ham and pasta to calm my shattered nerves.