A tale of a dog in the night

It was one of those late afternoons, early evenings leading up to Christmas, too dark for the hour and the temperature dropping to steamy breath level. Our showroom lights cast an overly bright light over the dark street and the door was open a jar to invite people in for a warm and a browse.

A lady, quite agitated, bustled in and started to remonstrate – this was a new experience and we couldn’t for the life of us think what we may have done to cause her upset. Gradually it became increasingly clear that our Golden Retriever in the window was the focus of her anxiety. “It was cruel to have a dog trapped in our window”, “why didn’t we have any food or water out for him?”, we shouldn’t be allowed to have a dog if we couldn’t look after him properly”.

Candida always dressed our showroom windows in a theme and that particular display was ‘cosy fireside’. Trying to suppress our amusement we tried to tell her that ‘Rosie’ was an animatronic dog, a mechanical dog, that didn’t need much in the way of looking after other than an electrical supply and the odd drop of oil. Quite a bit of persuasion was needed to convince her that the dog wasn’t real but in the end and having had a visit to the inside of our window display, with a slight harrumph, she left knowing that no harm was being done to one of our four legged friends. To our credit Rosie was particularly lifelike in looks and movement.

That was 10 years ago in Beaune in France and we are now in the beautiful Cotswolds having just opened fairfax thomson interiors in Cirencester. In addition to glorious giftware we specialise in: full service Interior Design and Project Management: wallpapers, fabrics and bespoke curtains, blinds and soft furnishings: lighting and lamps: interior furnishings, tailored furniture and bespoke rugs.

Do pop by the showroom and say hello (when we are all allowed to) and don’t forget to have a look at our website to get an idea of some of the projects we have worked on and to sign up for news and to hear first of our new collections, promotions and exclusive products.

Rest assured that if you see a dog in our window it is Charley Brown, a real Standard Poodle, a Facebook sensation and far from being neglected!

fairfax thomson interiors

7 Gosditch Street, Cirencester, GL7 2AG

www.fairfaxthomsoninteriors.com – tel: 0751 277 3241

Illustration by the fabulous Jess Stockham – www.jessstockham.com