Party Ice

By Gail Aguiar @ImageLegacy

Ice the Tourist Dog in Lamego

Ice the Dog turned three years old sometime in May, but he still gets called fofinho (cute but even more diminutive), like he’s still a cachorro (puppy)… let’s see how long that lasts.

Some small children recoil in fear at the sight of Ice, a medium-sized dog, but most are cheerfully exuberant and want to meet him. Either their parents have to restrain them, or they’ve trained their kids to ask first.

This is where I get really confused, because from their little-kid voices, all I hear is this:

“Cãozinho! … fofinho! … [fazer]… festinha?”

And then they look at me expectantly. They’re waiting for me to answer, except all my brain can parse is the diminutives (because that’s all I ever seem to hear) and the verbs fall away, leaving me with this thought:

“You want to have a little party with my dog???”

April 14, 2017
Album: North Central Portugal [Easter 2017]