We met the deevine foursome 3 years ago and are always happy to meet up with them when we return to our much loved Portugal. You met Lio, The Driving Dog, in an earlier post http://www.acookonthefunnyside.com/content/passion-portugal and this time we spent time with Luis, The Dog Chasing Cat.

We met up with them a couple of weeks ago and had lunch together at Nicolas Restaurant in Alcoutim – for fear of repeating myself, it is a really great place to eat food grilled on an outside bbq. After lunch we chatted outside their van and they had Luis on a long line outside. There was an obnoxious little dog that kept trying to get past Lio (a very tall and beautiful Leonberger) and get to the cat. I was afraid that he would hurt Luis, but Jo kept chasing the dog away as he was afraid the cat would hurt the dog. Luis has grown up with dogs and actually defended Lio against 5 dogs! Now that’s MY type of cat – you go Luis!

The proud parents, Anouschka and Joachim, are equally wonderful, but don’t shed their hair or perform tricks for treats!! They are the kindest, nicest people ever and Anouschka is an awesome baker and made us a deevine cheesecake – recipe to follow this post. They live in the hills overlooking the Algarve coast and their house is beautifully decorated and deevine. They get a lot of deevines from me!

On their first date, Jo decided to mount a horse “bucking bronco” style, but the horse decided that he would leave in exactly the same way. So his hopping on and hopping off were basically just one motion. He survived and they are still happily together 30 years later. Doesn’t mean you have to try it too though!

We are delighted to have them as friends and we WhatsApp each other everyday – whats can I say, I only just got it and a girl got to do whats a girl got to do. Whats that you say? I’m pathetic I know, but whats that got to do with the price of eggs? Whats the matter? Think I can’t use whats more than this? Just whats me.

There is a beautiful ruin on the hill next to their house and I would love to have it, but The Husband seems to think that a dash of paint won’t be enough to fix it. Just look at the view from The Bath (or whats left of it) and tell me you don’t want it too. Okay, so the whole property has to be pulled down and rebuilt, so whats? Alright already, I’ll stop with the whats!

Lio has been in the wars a bit lately and accidentally ate 5 fishing hooks! He was running on the beach and someone had dumped 5 baited hooks on the beach and he unknowingly ate them. He had to have major surgery, but thank goodness it all went well, because he is as deevine as his owners. He is full of energy and joy like an enormous 5 year old. It is a relief that 5 year old children tend not to be that big as life would certainly be slightly more lively if they were.

We look forward to seeing more of them every year when we continue our yearly pilgrimage to Portugal. Thanks and all whats I can say is “auf wiedersehen”!