Hugues de Saint Simon, Amedeo Abello & Tonno
ph. Amedeo Abello
This week a unique meeting with a cherished Laparade contributor. Amedeo is an Italian photographer who has documented his relationship with Hugues, the general secretary of the Philharmonie, and their great love: Italian rescue Tonno. They live together in Paris, and we can tell you that these three met in quite an extraordinary way…
Amedeo
I am Amedeo, I was born in Turin. One day, when I was in Polytechnic University, a friend called me and told me that he had found a dog in a park next to the city highway, hidden in a concrete water pipe. I went there immediately and spent three hours trying to get him out, without any success. A man passing by told me that the dog had been there for three days and that it was impossible to get him out. The dog was there with his sister, who had been run over by a car.
After a while I crawled back into the pipe. I couldn't see very well, I could only hear the grinding of teeth at the bottom. He was already a big dog around 6 months old. When I got in front of him, head to head, he stopped growling and I pulled him out into my arms. He didn’t move. As soon as he saw the car, he got in and hid in the back. Once we got home he would stick to me the whole time. He would growl at my parents or anyone who came near. The next day I left him to go to university, which was stupid, because he was alone at home with my dad. And when Tonno got on the couch, my dad tried to get him off and he got bitten. So, my dad said he was a bad dog and we couldn't keep him. Luckily, after two days at home, he became really nice.
With the trauma he's gotten from the accident with a car, he has the tendency to get inside the car when he can. Also, if he sees one of us leaving he goes crazy. He starts barking, crying and he wants to get in the car with us. He has a fear of being abandoned.
My parents lived in a small village where there was a lot of nature. So, when I went to Venice for my Master Degree, Tonno stayed with my mother. When she got cancer, I went to Paris and Tonno continued to stay with her. A week later my mum passed away. When I was clearing all of our stuff at home I thought "What do I do with my dog?”. I decided he would be happier in a small flat with me than in a big house with others. Otherwise, it would have been another abandonment.
To take him to France I had to get a passport, vaccinations and wait for a month. I was working in Paris, so I went down to Italy for the shots, and he stayed in the house where he had lived all his life, with a friend who fed him. After those weeks, I went to get them to take them with me to Paris. When we finally arrived, he had understood everything: he was extremely well-behaved. It was so sweet.
Once, I went to the Monoprix and tied him up outside for five minutes to buy something. He started barking and barking. But I said to myself, just five minutes would be alright. So, I was there buying the things I needed when I heard screams and saw him coming in!
Afterwards, I met my love, and I got two for the price of one.
Hugues
Now, Tonno is still growling while we talk, but with pleasure. Amedeo and I got to know each other the old-fashioned way, we courted each other, and two weeks later, he invited me to his apartment. When I arrived, I saw a dog. My upbringing had been the opposite: I was born in Paris. I've always lived in a flat and my parents weren't very keen on animals. My father liked dogs, but my mother didn't. I liked animals a lot, and then, by persisting, we got hamsters, turtle doves, only small animals, caged animals, but never dogs or cats. I'm super happy to have a dog, thanks to Amedeo. I don't know if I would have had this pleasure otherwise. I thought that in Paris it would be complicated. Therefore, I was a bit afraid to take responsibility for a dog. And then, he came into my life without me having to decide.
He's super sweet and adorable. But when I came into his life, he already had his life with Amedeo, he was sleeping in his bed. The first time we got into bed he was spinning around it, the first time we made love it was "ohlalah! what's going on in this house?" and I thought "if every time we make love will be like this...!!" Now he has adjusted completely. One really cute thing he does every morning is that he goes around the bed. First, he comes to say good morning to me. Then he goes around the bed and says hello to Amedeo. Every morning.
Amedeo
Tonno finally became his dog. He is very protective. One day, we weren't living together then, Hugues dropped us off in Montreuil and Tonno was waiting for Hugues to get out too. When he didn't get out and saw the car leave, he started to cry, it was really very touching.
Hugues
Tonno is extremely cuddly, Amedeo too. So, I get a double amount of cuddles, I feel completely loved. He does another very cute thing too: when we are on the couch, and there isn’t enough room, he climbs between us and sits a little bit on top of everyone.
Amedeo
The smaller the space, the more he likes it! He doesn't realise how big he is.
He has many nicknames, so many that I made a three-page list. The most common one is the character from Lord of the Rings: the Goblins. I started calling him that in Italy, and when we got to Paris, I saw the Gobelins metro station next to my house. So from then on, I called him Gobelins all the time, to the point where it turned into a species. When someone is cuddly, we call them a Goblin.
Hugues
And still, when we see a name that we consider funny, we call him that for a while.
Amedeo
Gromildes, Mildred, Josephine, Jonathan...
My favourite film was Blow with Johnny Depp, where he was a blonde, handsome, international drug dealer and his mate was called Tonno. Tonno’s head also looks like that of a tuna. I also had a cat called Prosciutto (ham). It's fun for me to give strange names.
Hugues
When we send a message to our friends, we always sign Amedeo, Hugues and Tonno. And our wedding invitation is for all three of us!
Amedeo
I often think about the journeys this dog has made in his little dog's life. I found him in Tourin in a pipe and he moved to Switzerland. He ended up in Paris. He went to Normandy to bathe in the ocean, to bathe in the glacial mountain lakes. He went to Venice on the Vaporetto... It’s truly amazing.
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