The company behind Roger-Wilco, BluSky Services Group, has in its logo the image of a Siberian Husky serenely looking out over snowy peaks. Since BSSG is an aviation consultancy (with in house multimedia and graphics expertise also), a lot of people have asked why the logo shows a husky so prominently instead of an aircraft or some more imaginative rendering of what we are doing. The company slogan “Quality, reliability, integrity…” does give you a hint…
The truth is that the husky has in fact been real, our companion for 12 years and he died the year BluSky Services was established. He flew west after having supported us in some of the most difficult periods of our life, both private and professional, but he left his spirit behind to carry both BSSG and Roger-Wilco forward.
This is the true story of Cyrano, the Siberian Husky, BluSky’s mascot and one time security chief.
I guess at some point all parents face this dilemma: the kids want a pet and the parents are not sure (or worse…). We were no different but our kids were persistent and persuasive. They aimed for a dog and promised to take care of it like no other kids ever did. Although we had our doubts in the end we relented, convinced that a pet would do only good for everyone. But it had to be something special, a race that was like no other.
Siberian Huskies are known for their loyalty, crew spirit, intelligence but also for being fiercely independent. Treats that we though would be a good combination for an aviation family.
When Cyrano arrived in our family, he was little larger than a teen-age cat. A few dozen grams of black/grey and white fur, pink tong already mostly hanging out in true husky-fashion and a tail that was curling back on his back, again the way husky tails do most of the time.
After only the briefest of hesitation, Cyrano adopted my wife as his surrogate mom and from then on he would eat or sleep exclusively in her lap or on her shoes as she was working in the kitchen. Lunch was skipped a few times when Cyrano refused to wake up in time.
As he grew, the changes were not only on the outside. As a teenager, Cyrano had overly long legs and a definitely teen-age disposition. As a first step, he explored the family and fought intense battles for domination with all male members while he totally ignored my wife (except when he wanted to sleep of course). In short order he established himself (by sound, sight and gentle bites) as the dominant male and from then on acted like one… for instance, when we went for a walk, he would always, but then absolutely always, walk up front. No one else was allowed to take that position.
He was also exploring the boundaries and meaning of the word NO. He knew perfectly well that he was not supposed to go and sit among the flowers and shrubs… and of course went to sit there whenever he could, waiting to see what would happen. Words were not enough to draw him out or give up sitting there and ultimately my wife had to use a broom to bring him to understand the message. True she was rewarded by Cyrano running into the kitchen to pee in the middle, thereby indicating his displeasure and disagreement. But he never went back to the shrubs.
We soon realized that it was important for him to always know where his own spot was in the apartment, in the car or when out camping. I will never forget the first time we took him with us to the south of France where we usually spent three weeks in a wonderful camping neat Port Grimaud. As evening fell, Cyrano was becoming more and more excited. He walked into the tent then came out, went around it a few times, came to me and looked into my eyes with the kind of look that was more expressive than a question mark drawn in ink on white paper. He was asking me to show his assigned sleeping quarters. There was a fore-tent attached to the main tent structure and I showed him that area and said Cyrano this is where you will sleep. And from then on, every evening when it was his bed time, he would curl up there and go to sleep…
In the car his station was ahead of the front seat, alongside my wife’s feet. I think they both were uncomfortable but clearly, the noisy, moving contraption the car must have seemed to him required a counter balance of reassurance and what batter place for that than the feet he knew so well, where he used to sleep peacefully when he was a pup. So there he stayed and no amount of persuasion could make him budge. He slept most of the time when we were driving and rise only when we stopped to stretch our legs. But even there he knew his way! We were on a trip to Budapest, a 13 hour drive which we usually made in one day. One of the motorways in Germany was closed due to an accident and we had to divert with no boards indicating the way. There was no GPS in the car and soon I was driving more and more uncertain of which way to go. Cyrano started to make little noises and then sat up when we left the motorway and he looked out the window and made more noises at every turn. Slowly we did get back to the main highway whereupon he sunk back on the floor and went back to sleep.
After a time we were certain that he could understand every word we said and did not join our conversations simply because the subjects were too boring. But when he had had enough, he would gently grab our hand and pull us to the kitchen, planting himself in front of the box holding his favorite cookies. You could not imagine a clearer message.
You are not supposed to give human food to dogs and giving them tidbits at the dinner table is really a forbidden indulgence. I am afraid we did commit both sins but were rewarded by a few totally unexpected shows of his intelligence.
That he learned in time at all to take food from a fork or even a spoon without touching either with his teeth was perhaps not so surprising. But when he started to run to the table the moment dinner was called and sit on one of the chairs, we were really surprised. On one occasion we had guests and all the chairs were taken by the time Cyrano joined us. He walked around the table a few times and then looked at the guy who was sitting on the chair Cyrano considered his own. Our guest was not exactly at home in dog language and he was even shocked when Cyrano took his hand gently into his mouth and tugged insistently. The guy stood up uncertainly and allowed Cyrano to lead him to the kitchen. He stood there not knowing what would come next as Cyrano released him, ran back to the dinning room and sat on the now vacant chair…
Although I could never reclaim my status as the head of the family while he was around, he did accord me a certain special status which was quite clearly a combination of respect and love due to a parent. He also invented a very special way of showing this. With his paws in my lap, his head on my shoulder there was no need for words to express “I love you”.
Although our sons’ promise to look after Cyrano was not really made true, this was not a problem at all. He became a fully functional member of the family and we all were eager to take him for walks or play with him or give him treats.
He was a wonderful companion but one who never lost his independence. He did stand up for his dues and was always aware of the status he had secured for himself right from the start… he was the leader of the pack and he never allowed us to forget it. But he was also sensitive to our moods and feelings and would lie quietly for hours on the rare occasions when sadness was in the air.
I wanted him to be in the company logo for exactly those characteristics, things that we wanted to be also characteristics of BluSky itself.
To this day I feel his ice-blue eyes on me, watching how we make true that original idea day after day.
