Out to dinner with friends, at my favorite (so far) Malibu restaurant, Tra Du Noi [anybody know what that means?], we're sitting outside having the alfresco experience (note to self: character name--Al Fresco? to go with Papa Rozzi I made up last week?) when I notice a woman a few tables away who appears to have a white pony in her lap. Or the head of such a pony, anyway. I excuse myself and go investigate.
He's a white Great Dane, the Apollo of dogs. Three feet tall at the shoulder, his ears level with my breastbone (I'm 5'8"), he weighs 150 pounds, is at least six feet from nose to tail, and is eight months old. His name, appropriately, is Conan. He eyes me suspiciously, as if he thinks I just might be stupid enough to try something on his mistress, Simona, a tiny, elegant Venezuelan. He doesn't look all that bright, actually--blue eyes with pink around them. I don't think fast enough to ask whether he's deaf, as all blue-eyed white cats are. I'm not really thinking much at all, just watching this magnificent animal adore his mistress--not begging from the table, just watching her every move, guarding her. Simona promised to bring him to the book store, so that should be an experience! I can hardly wait to see him again.
Should be Tra Di Noi, meaning Among Us...
Posted by: Pica | August 16, 2004 at 11:39 AM