Cezar Rules

I mentioned walking Cezar at the Art Walk. Cezar is our cute mutt that wandered into the school where I was substituting teaching and stole everyone's heart, including mine. Good thing, too: At that school (and maybe every school), unclaimed strays are sent to the pound at the end of the day. Poor Cezar was just coming down with Parvo, a really horrible dog illness that kills about 80% of the time and is highly contagious. He would have been history.

I called my husband from school, and when I brought this cute mutt home, Rajan already had a list of composers'names. Cezar Franck was at the top, but Cezar narrowly escaped becoming Amadeus. People tend to think he was named for Julius Caesar, and I must say, Cezar seems to think so, too. He rules the household, especially when it comes to his walk.

He insists on his walk, because for him it's a social occasion. People stop me on the street to say how beautiful he is, how cute he is. "May I pet him?" I've been asked so often, as if this is a rare privilege indeed. At Mixed Bag, my favorite boutique, he gets treats. At Time Tested Books, one of my favorite used book stores (The Book Collector is the other), he gets treats. At Rite Aid,clerks come from around the counter to pet him and coo at him. Even during the Art Walk last Saturday evening, after it had grown dark, two bicyclists whizzed past me, and one had to say, "What a cute dog!" (I mean, in that light, how could she even tell?)

Cezar, what is your magic?