caffeinated drawings

Isa makes a perfect cup of cafe com leite.

Most mornings I start with a romp on the beach and then go up to Varandas Bar for a cafe com leite. As soon as Isa sees me trotting up from the beach she makes it for me and leaves it sitting on the tiles. By the time I get there it has cooled down to the perfect temperature. I used to drink galao but it comes in a tall glass and my tongue isn't long enough to reach the bottom of the glass so I switched to cafe com leite. I love coffee but it does tend to affect my drawing.

As you can imagine, finding ways to hold a pen steady can be challenging at the best of times. But I've practiced enough by now that I can make pretty smooth marks. But when I've had too much cafe com leite my steadiness goes out the window. The problem is I love the mental buzz I get from coffee. Coffee makes me feel smart. And creative. Ideas flow and tumble and dance and I feel confident that I can make marks exactly how I see them in my head. Unfortunately this isn't the case in practice. The caffeine makes my paws jumpy. If I put the pen in my mouth I find that even my jaw is jumpy. But I can't suppress the urge to create, so I make the most of the situation and embrace the jumpiness of my mark-making. Here are a few caffeinated drawings from my sketchbook.

caffeinated sketches

Lively drawings, but can anyone but me see that these are dogs?

I think I'm starting to get the hang of jumpy, caffeinated drawing.

I suppose they have a certain lively quality to them. I wonder if I can make drawings like this without caffeine? Hmmm. That will be an exercise for another day.

It isn't right to toy with a dog's emotions.

Rita is upset. She's confused. And I don't blame her. As dogs, by nature, we're pretty laid back creatures. We can go with the flow ... most of the time. But sometimes we can get upset. Like with Rita right now. It all started a little over a week ago. Let me give you a bit of background to this story.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, Rita spends a lot of time at her person's bookstore, Livros da Ria Formosa, in Lagos. The shop sits on the corner of a block which has several cafes, a padaria (right across the doorway from the bookstore - the tantalizing scents can drive a dog crazy), a papelaria, and several other shops with very dog-friendly owners. Rita has a routine each day when she's at her bookstore. She goes from neighbour to neighbour, has a little visit, catches up on the local gossip and has a little snack, courtesy of the shop owner. One of her favourites is News Cafe. It's a great spot for getting local gossip as well as a bit of a perspective on world events since many of the Cafe's patrons come from all over the world. And of course the snacks aren't too shabby either.

Rita's favourite snack stop

But a little over a week ago disaster struck. News Cafe was all closed up and there is now a Vende-Se sign in the window. Ack! Rita is devastated. Her world has been turned upside down. Of course her person sees how upset she is. He's tried to get her mind off the situation. He makes her big bowls of cafe com leite. He gives her long belly rubs. He reads her passages from her favourite book, Saramago's A Caverna. But nothing seems to snap her out of her blues.

Rita's person tries to console her, but sometimes even love isn't enough.

Now, to make matters worse, News Cafe is open again, but the For Sale sign is still up. It isn't right to toy with a dog's emotions and stomach like this. This is just prolonging the torture. There are too many questions. Will the new owners be as welcoming and friendly? Will the cafe continue to attract the cosmopolitan clientele that is essential to Rita's sense of the wider world. Will the snacks be as tasty as before? All we can do is wait. Rita's person and I will do our best to keep her mind occupied with happy things. Love can't solve all your problems, but at least it can make them bearable. Chin up Rita.

sympathy equals affection

Before I get into the real reason for this post, I have to clarify something. Old-Man-Eyes chastized me for not using the name that her people gave her, which is Josephina. Old-Man-Eyes found out that her people might read this blog and see that I'm not calling her Josephina and she didn't want her people to get upset. So here's the clarification: Dogs call her Old-Man-Eyes and people call her Josephina. This sort of thing happens a lot. People give names to dogs not realizing that they already have a name so from now on if a dog has name that's different from the name people gave him or her, I'll try to use both names if I can remember to.

So, now I have an update on Tiky, my skinny friend from Restaurante Castelejo. I went there yesterday and was hanging out with Old-Man-Eyes (Josephina). She introduced me to a new member of her group.

Lola with one of her people trying (in vain) to get her to lie down

Lola is seven months old and she's a real goof. Sweet, but a goof. She's quite clumsy and floppy and she's so big already that she's knocking us off our feet when we play. It's all in good fun though. I did a sketch of her and when I showed it to her she drooled all over it so I decided to add some spashes of colour to try to cover up the drool stains.

Lola at Restaurante Castelejo

So while we were playing, who should show up but my skinny friend Tiky! She seemed fine, full of energy and wiggles. I asked her what was going on, where she had been. I said that I'd been worried about her, since the last time I'd seen her she had been looking so poorly. Well, what she told me next was pretty funny. She said that when I'd been there a couple of weeks ago  – when I thought she was sick – was all just a show. She was putting on an act for the dog-loving Canadian. Actually, she was just fine but she knows how to manipulate the tourists to get sympathy because sympathy equals affection and if there’s anything that Tiky loves it’s affection. She apologized for not giving me a sign to say she was faking. In order for that not to happen again we’ve devised a signal that she will use to let me know that she’s just toying with the tourists. I can't tell you what that signal is in case a tourist happens to read this. I don't want to jeopardize any future sympathy for Tiky.

Tiky gets a big welcome home. You can barely see her behind giant Lola!

So that clarified things but I still had to ask where she had been lately. She said that while she loves her people and the other 15 (oops, that’s 17 now) dogs she lives with, sometimes she just needs to be alone. She takes off for a couple of days at a time, goes sniffing around the countryside - sleeps under the stars, chases rabbits, basks in the sun - all in peace and quiet. She says it sort of clears her head and calms her down. By the time she returns to her people and the other dogs she's ready to appreciate all that they have to offer - companionship, games, food, conversation and of course AFFECTION. She insists that she would never stay away for very long. She needs her affection. Well, she's getting it now from all sides. I think part of the reason she goes away is because when she gets back she gets even more affection than usual because everyone has missed her so much. Smart girl! I could learn a thing or two from her.

Tchao-wow,

Ruca