You know, here in Rome, away from my garden and the sea and my French habits, I’ve sometimes been a bit homesick, but then I think, well, this is my home, too, and when I’m in that other place, I get homesick there and start thinking about those little morsels of mozzarella di buffala and that sweet and bitter smell of roasting coffee that wafts through our bathroom window from Tazza d’Oro, (a coffee-roasting bar) each morning and wakes me up, even though I do NOT drink that black stuff that mama and papa adore.
And so I think, “I need some new friends here in Rome”, because in that other place there are all sorts of people who stop by to see me (mama thinks they are coming to see her, but I know better) and so I was gazing out the window at all the nutsy, chase-your-tail Jack Russells that run around like crazed weasels in the street under my gazing post, and I called out to one , “Hey, ciao, JR—what’s up?” and he looked up and his little muzzle was so, so cute and he was one of those JRs with little short legs who just tear your heart out with their limpid brown-eyed looks and darling little whiskers and he actually SPOKE to me and said, “Hey, why are you dressed up in a tuxedo? Are you going somewhere important?”
And I said, “This is my habitual garb, Oh, Observant One, and don’t you forget it. I’m dressed to kill EVERY day and if you ever feel like a little romp in the villa Borghese, just bow-wow under my window.”
So now when he goes out to take his owner for a walk, he looks up to see if I’m on my perch, and I think “this is the start of a really, really good friendship. He sent me his picture (see above) and I’m not quite sure just what he wanted me to see (!) but I thought it was really sweet of him, even if he is a dog and certain attributes of his will NOT be useful to me (a fixed kitty, anyway).
My view is that in this world that’s getting smaller every day, a kitty has to like all kinds of creatures, even those looney-toony JRs because some of them are pretty cool little canines who actually live calm and sane lives and don’t give the impression that they seriously need some behavior modification SUBITO (that means ‘right now’ in Italian).
By the way, his name is Tod and they call him Toddy and I thought his owner was calling him Totti, so I was instantly in love—but Tod is okay with me.
