I am using any excuse to avoid sorting through the zillions of photographs that I took during our fabulous vacation in Italy, but this was a little vignette that I couldn't pass up.
Most dogs in Europe are treated very well, are correspondingly very well-trained and behave superbly. As a result, they accompany their owners everywere - or almost everywhere. Accompanying their owners to restaurants is decidedly commonplace for dogs here. In the case of most dogs, unless one actually sees them entering or leaving a restaurant with their masters/mistresses, one hardly knows that they are present because they are so well-behaved and unobtrusive. I have been startled on occasion when a party at a table near me leaves and an enormous dog sallies forth after unwinding itself from beneath the table. No one had even noticed it was there; certainly not me.
Tonight was a notable exception.
HWMBO, perhaps getting tired of my version of "home-cooked" meals after our wonderful Italian fare, proposed that we have dinner out this evening. He suggested a small restaurant at the little two-star hotel in our village which is very cozy, patronized by local Swiss people and where we have shared tasty meals. So we walked into town, past the inveterate smokers huddled at the small tables outside, who since last summer are no longer allowed inside bars or restaurants, through the narrow bar area where the patrons enjoying their beers obviously wondered who on earth we were, and into the restaurant. The hostess, wife of the chef and proprietor - it is a family-owned business - welcomed us and seated us. The tiny restaurant, seating about 30 at most, was already half full with a comfortable sound buzz.
We selected items from the menu: HWMBO chose the "steak-frites-salade" combo while I had the green salad and a small pasta entree. In the meantime, others entered the restaurant and were seated but we were paying more attention to each other than to them. That is, until the moment when we had both received our main courses and I heard sort of a whiny, choking sound from behind me. As it was uncomfortable - if not outright rude - for me to turn around, HWMBO relayed reports of what was happening. One couple had entered with a miniature-size dog (when I did get a glimpse of it, it appeared to be a chow breed) that was apparently unhappy at the idea of staying under the table alone while its people were having dinner.
Without skipping a beat, the hostess provided a chair for the dog to sit in and the dog actually sat at the table with its owners. Indeed, a friend of the couple joined them and - this knocked HWMBO for a loop - asked the dog's permission to sit with them! The dog apparently deigned to accept her company because the friend sat down with the three others: the owners and the dog.
For a time, all was calm, so we proceeded with our meal - except that four young men at the table across from us kept looking back at the people with the dog and smiling broadly, finding the whole situation quite amusing, if not outright hilarious. Then the whiny choking sound was repeated, not just once but several times. The hostess muttered while passing our table, "He wants to eat too." So the dog ate at the table with its masters! The four young men could hardly contain themselves.
When we finished our meal and had paid our bill, I glanced back at the table in question, regretting that I had missed seeing all the action behind me. By this time, Master Dog was under the table, but still not lying quietly in the way that most well-behaved dogs act. No, he was snuffling about, looking for crumbs.
I have seen a lot of dogs in Swiss and French restaurants. But this was the first time that I had ever had an experience like this. There certainly could be much worse fates than coming back as a dog in Switzerland to owners like this, with understanding restauranteurs like our hostess this evening!
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