“Beautiful, it’s a word that seems to have been invented for her…
O Lucifer, oh leave me just once
Run my fingers through Esmeralda’s hair”
“Belle”, musical comedy “Notre-Dame de Paris”, 1998
Suddenly I understood. Until then, the beauty of others had never ruined my life. Until then, beautiful people, chic or graceful beings, I found that they lit up my existence. Their superiority splattered my day. Until then, meeting a stunning girl or a crazy elegant guy, it pulled me up. Until then, I did not understand how one could hate top models, and the body positivism made me downright “chleu”. I found that the more beautiful people you saw in the ads, the more it reenchanted the world… Come on, I admit it: even Rocco Siffredi, I didn’t have an inch of jealousy for him.
And then, with my dog Kimbelle, we met Scout, a female Australian Shepherd so beautiful and Instagrammable that my life suddenly went black and white. My Kimbelle, my Kiki, my Kim, my pupil, I no longer found her pataudery adorable. But zero. Of my dog’s face, which I compared to that of a Botticellian fawn, I only saw the brownish wrinkles. Of her pretty dimpled ass, all I noticed was awkwardness. My pride in having a singular dog has deflated to make way for envy. I found myself in the shoes of the guy who goes out with the funniest girl in the gang and who, after meeting a couple as handsome as the devil, begins to hate his fiancée. Yes, Kim, I confess to you. Because of Scout, I hated our love.
I still have to talk to you about Scout! Scout already bears the first name of the heroine of the novel Took no mockingbird. Scout is the Australian Shepherd breed – now the top dog breed in all canine beauty polls. The first thing you see in Scout is his blue merle coat (the adjective designates a dress with diluted spots, in short, just too cute). Then, we distinguish his ice blue eyes (wow). Then, his pink muzzle with delicate black shadows (rhoooo). As for its appearance, I have only one word, and it is worth them all: fluffy.
Australian Shepherds like Scout are very fashionable. Alas, people buy them without knowing that they have to be walked around a lot, made to work on them. In the end, they are often problematic dogs. Except… Scout! Like the princesses at Disney, Scout is beautiful outside and beautiful inside. Kind, good character, attentive to the happiness of her mistresses. Ah, because I haven’t told you yet: Scout lives in a family where we were born beautiful – well, beautiful. As his mistress, Salomé, says: “When I’m with my daughters and with Scout, we gang up.” Gang of stars, I want to say. Scout, I like it. What if I stole it?
And then I petted Scout. My hand slipped into her lovely fur like through a cloud. I suspended my caress. And I understood. A dog is first and foremost a texture. Scout is silky – my palm slid over her. Kimbelle, my companion, is a thickness, a mass and a form of “roughness” that retains the caress. The texture of my female dog has the ability to suspend the gesture. To stop time…
Scout, it’s Aphrodite. But my Kimbelle, she is a Buddhist and Proustian nun. My dog is not my ideal beauty. But she is, as they say, my kind of beauty. Bye-bye, Scout. Come, my Kimbelle.