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Canine Amour
| Article
# : |
16000 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1989 |
1,253 Words |
| Author
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Pierre Emmanuel
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PARIS-"If Man is truly the king of creation, the dog is, without exaggerating, at the very least the baron," according to Alphonse Allais, a turn of the century French humorist and social commentator. That is a typical expression of the esteem the French have for their dogs. French dogs are excluded from virtually no family activity, including the ultimate in French conviviality--an outing to the market or restaurant.
One day I stuck my head inside a neighborhood bakery with my longhaired dachshund on his leash and asked, "Should I tie him up outside?"
"No, poor thing. He won't do any harm," came the salesgirl's indulgent reply. "Keep him in your arms if you insist" (that is, on following the rules).
Dogs are even welcome at work. A secretary once put me on notice that I had the choice between accepting her gray toy poodle, ensconced on his pillow in the entryway, or finding another secretary. "You can't expect me to make her stay home alone all day" was her argument, allowing no refutation. A former editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris went so overboard that he also brought his Great Dane, named Baron, to sit under his desk every day. Baron was polite and stayed out of the city room, but he was not shy about sniffing journalists who went in to ask for raises.
While nobody can say exactly how many dogs there are in France (there are no dog licenses), it is likely that France has the world's largest proportion of dogs to humans, except for the United
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