Some of my pup pals wanted to know why we moved. When Mom originally searched for an apartment, the one she wanted that was big enough for her and me and her two friends wasn't available for the first two weeks of her stay. The friends were coming two weeks later, so she took a smaller one for the first two weeks and then moved to the larger one. Good thing too, because there was construction going on upstairs and the jackhammers were going all day long. One day Mom even put ear plugs in my ears, it was so loud. It didn't scare me unless something crashed, but Mom knows that we dogs have sensitive hearing. Our new apartment is much quieter.
The disadvantage about this apartment (we thought, because we were told) there was no elevator and we had to climb three flights of stairs. This was pretty hard for an old guy like me. Mom said she would carry me down, but that she couldn't carry me up. Well, guess what! Now that we've been here four days (16 round trips up and down) we found out that it DOES have an elevator, and guess what else? It's half the size of our old elevator! We can't get the poussette in this one so we have to leave it down at the bottom of the stairs with the other poussettes.
Mom and I and her friends have spent the first few days running errands to make life more comfortable (for them - I'm fine) at the new place. This apartment has two bedrooms, but one closet, so we went shopping at the BHV for a clothes rack. The BHV, Bazaar de Hotel de Ville, is a pretty up-scale department store that has a "bricolage" (hardware) department in the basement. We found a clothes rack and the nice man in the store tied twine around the box so that it could be carried easily. He even made a handle for it that made carrying it comfortable. We told him it was a work of art.
Everywhere we go the French talk to us (to me mostly) and ask about the poussette. They want to know if it was made especially for dogs, and some people want to know where to get one. One lady made us feel bad when she wanted one for her old dog who wasn't in good health, but looked sad when we told her how much it cost. Another lady in a very useful store called Monoprix chatted non-stop so fast that the salesgirl had to translate some of it for us - she wanted to take me home with her.
Tonight when we all went out to dinner, the waiters would stop and talk to me on the way by. When one of them asked what my name was and Mom told him it was Patch, he started calling me "Patch-ou." So now Mom and her friends call me Patch-ou.
Earlier this morning, we all went to the Sunday art market in the Montparnasse area. There were rows of tents with artists displaying their work. We met other dogs in the market, but Mom wanted me to stay in my poussette because she didn't want to have to buy something because I peed on it. While she was buying some jewelry and gifts at one of the booths, her friend Virginia was watching me in the poussette. I began to attract a lot of attention and people were actually taking pictures of me. Mom decided that I should start selling my picture with some publicity about my up-coming book. I could even print paw-graphs. Maybe start a French fan club.
I had to have a bath yesterday. Only two weeks after my last bath. The streets are so dirty here that my white parts were all black. It wasn't fun. (Note from Mom: It wasn't fun for me, either.) She put me in a bathtub full of water that had a showerhead with a handle and wet me down. Then she sudsed me up and let me soak. When the water started turning gray, she started to scrub. The bathtub was slippery and I went under a couple of times, but she wouldn't give up until I was clean. When she finally let me out of the tub, I went berserk! I whirled around the little bathroom like a dervish, slipping on the tile, bouncing off the walls and the tub until Mom could catch me and wrap me tight in one towel while she dried me off with another one. Then she opened the door. I raced through the rooms, careening around the corners, grabbed my bunny and jumped right in the middle of the white duvet on the closest bed! I collapsed and sank down into its cottony softness. I was exhausted! But I have to admit, I did smell better.
Hi Patch-ou, If someone is interested in purchasing a dog stroller tell them to surf the internet because there are all different kinds and prices. They start at under 30 dollars and go up over 200 dollars (momma just did a search on the internet under CHEAP DOG STROLLERS) and that is what she found. Of course the prices do not cover shipping and handling so even the 30 dollar stroller would probably end up being closer to 60 or more dollars when everything is finally added into it.
ReplyDeleteMomma remembers when she first saw the doggy strollers in various stores she thought that the dogs who rode in them were really spoiled and lazy. But now that I have the spinal injury and the humans are living in the hot desert the stroller has been a wonderful asset. All dogs should be as lucky as we are to have their own strollers.