Read Ollie's book
Ollie is a lilac French bulldog on a third floor in Amsterdam-Noord, with no lift; going down, he is carried. His book has the cheese slicer, ten centimetres of sofa, and the coat he is now afraid of. An example. 6 photos, the answers to the questions, about ten minutes. Yours is made the same way.
OllieOllie
2021
OllieOllie
2021
For Ollie, who waits until you look.
Ollie1- Breed
- French bulldog, lilac
- Born
- 2021
- Lives with
- Dennis and Kim, Amsterdam-Noord
- Loves
- The cheese slicer, the sofa
- Fears
- Rain, and now his own coat
Ollie2
Flat on the floor after the third flight of stairs. Every day.
Ollie3Half Past Six
He snores, then the snoring stops, and that is the signal. Ollie stands next to the bed and waits until you look. Then he turns round and walks to the door. Dennis carries him down the three flights, because down he refuses. On the pavement he stands for a minute, looks left, looks right, and goes flat on the ground. Then Dennis waits. Then they go to the corner and back.
Ollie4The Slicer, Not the Fridge
It is not the fridge that brings him running. It is the cheese slicer coming off the shelf. And the delivery bell, which he sits by until the door is shut again, his nose an inch from the wood, breathing. When it shuts he walks to the kitchen and checks whether anything came out of the bag. Mostly nothing did. Then he looks at us, as if we might explain it.
Ollie5This is the look when the cheese slicer comes out. Ollie6Ten Centimetres
Officially Ollie sleeps in the basket next to the sofa. Really he sleeps on the sofa, in Kim's place, the moment she gets up. When she comes back, she finds him there, and he looks at her and shifts ten centimetres, as if that small move settles the matter and the sofa was never really hers to begin with, only borrowed while she was gone.
Ollie7
The basket is official. The sofa is real. Ollie8
He looks outside, then looks at us. Ollie9Scared of the Coat
Not thunder. Rain, plainly, is the thing. Ollie looks outside, looks at us, and lies back down again, as though the matter is settled and there is nothing more to discuss. Kim bought him a coat for it, thinking that would help. Instead he is now scared of the coat as well, which solved nothing and added one more thing to fear.
Ollie10Who Is Who
- Dennis
- Carries him down three flights every morning.
- Kim
- Gives up her sofa spot without knowing it.
- Roos
- Not a dog person, except on her lap.
- The neighbour downstairs
- Says 'morning, old man' to him and nobody else.
Ollie11DennisKimRoosThe neighbour downstairsOllie12The Dog Who Looked Like Him
In the park Ollie saw a dog that looked just like him. He sat down in front of it and looked, then barked once. The other dog barked back at him. Neither one moved after that. Instead the two of them sat side by side for half an hour, doing nothing at all, as if that had been the whole point of meeting.
Ollie13
Half an hour, doing nothing. Ollie14
Shaking paws with the photographer, unasked. Ollie15One Trick
Ollie knows exactly one trick, and that is shaking paws. Nobody has to ask him for it. He offers it on his own, without being cued, and he seems to save it especially for moments when your hands are full and least free to take it, holding something else entirely, so that his paw just hangs there, waiting to be shaken.
Ollie16
On Roos's lap, every time. Ollie17Two Kinds of Love
Roos, Kim's sister, says plainly that she isn't a dog person, yet she has Ollie on her lap every single time regardless, without fail, as if the two facts simply sit next to each other unresolved. And the neighbour downstairs calls out 'morning, old man' to him each day on the street, and greets nobody else in the building that way, only him.
Ollie18Slept Through the Speech
Ollie gets away with snoring during dinner at other people's houses. At the wedding he fell asleep under Kim's parents' table and drowned out her father's speech. Her father stopped mid-sentence, looked under the table, and said, 'he has heard this one before.' It got the biggest laugh of the night. Ollie slept through that too.
Ollie19
The wedding outfit. He wore it for twenty minutes. Ollie20
Sitting and waiting. For what, nobody knows. Ollie21
On the chair of Dennis's father, where he is not allowed. Ollie22A Few Household Words
- The slicer
- The sound that brings him running, not the fridge.
- The coat
- Bought for the rain. Now feared on its own.
- Old man
- What the neighbour downstairs calls him, daily.
- Shaking paws
- His one trick, given unasked.
Ollie23The slicerThe coatOld manShaking pawsOllie24Half past six still starts the day. The snoring stops, he waits by the bed, and Dennis carries him down three flights because down he refuses. He sits by the door for the delivery bell and checks the bag anyway. He shakes paws when nobody asks. Kim shifts ten centimetres on the sofa, every time.
Ollie25Sitting and waiting. For what, nobody knows.
Ollie26This book was made for Ollie, from the words and photos of the people who love Ollie.
bookofmypet.com
On screen and to download. €6.99, paid after the questions.