Lafange

Lafange

If ever there was a true lafanga, it has to be that dog up my street. He sports a collar as a token of affiliation to a food bowl set out for him in the last house on the street, but beyond that he is a free agent for the greater part of the day. He is, one has to admit, quite a rakishly handsome fellow, taller than your average mongrel and sleek of fur. Occasionally the ferocious sun gets too hot even for him and he retires to the cool comfort of his home garden. But aside from these meditative interludes in his routine, he is generally to be found loitering with disreputable elegance on our street. When the fancy takes him he may explore a side lane or two, but such forays tend to be fraught with tension because the dogs headquartered in these lanes are regrettably deficient in the cosmopolitan outlook, a shortcoming that usually manifests itself in loud and nasty disputes about domiciliary rights. Most times our lafanga is forced to withdraw with offended dignity to his own street, from where he hurls a few parting shots after the retreating backsides of his adversaries. I can’t help suspecting that in the course of these border disputes he sometimes lapses into language that would never pass muster in polite society.

The sight of our local lafanga often reminds me of two of my daughter’s high school classmates who lived on this same street. They too could be found, with harmonious unity of purpose, loitering on the street at any time of the day. Sometimes they would work up the courage to ring our doorbell and enquire shamefacedly whether our daughter was home. If she wasn’t (or had instructed us to say so), the pair would turn around and shuffle off sheepishly and wordlessly. But if she was home, they would come in and settle awkwardly on the edge of the living room sofa. Conversation generally tended to be fitful and less than sparkling. Eventually there would be the sound of the front door opening and closing to discharge the two friends back on to the street.

I really don’t know why that lafanga dog on our street reminds me so much of these boys. Honestly I don’t.