Maggie in Venice

Françoise & Georges of Lyon greet Maggie

ABOVE: Georges, shown here in civilian clothes, ruffles Maggie's fur with the Scuola Grande dei Carmini as a backdrop.

This afternoon, we were walking near the Scuola Grande dei Carmini in Dorsoduro when a pleasant-looking couple looked at our canine companion and said "Maggie"? They identified themselves as Françoise and Georges of Lyon, France, and said they'd found our blog after reading La Nuova's newspaper article about Maggie a few weeks ago.

While giving Maggie a rubdown, they revealed that they had a 1½-year-old Polish Lowland Sheepdog at home named Eros (see  photo) and knew Pongo, a local dog who has been mentioned several times in this blog.

Françoise and Georges also handed us their card (shown below), which had a picture of two elaborately costumed Carnival performers, an e-mail address, and a statement in three languages that "A nice picture would make us happy!" Only after we'd said farewell did we realize that they were the couple in the photo! (Click here and here for photos of their costumes in 2010.)

Maggie gives the sniff test to Johnny Depp

ABOVE: Maggie gets up close and personal with Johnny Depp's familiar scent.

In our Venice Travel Blog, we posted a video earlier today titled "Johnny Depp's Palazzo in Venice." The video shows a house on the Grand Canal that the star of Edward Scissorhands, Pirates of the Caribbean, and (more recently) The Tourist just bought for a reported 10 million euros.

Since this blog is about Maggie, we thought you might be interested in hearing about the role that she played in helping us scoop the mainstream media with our paparazzi video. In the clip below, you'll see the palazzo, followed by actual footage of Maggie sniffing at the back door of Johnny Depp's new holiday home to confirm that the star had been there recently.

Trivia notes for "Making of" fans:

• Before finding our way to the palazzo, we refreshed Maggie's scent memory from last year by having her sniff a photo of Johnny Depp from a local newspaper, La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre.

• We also downloaded a digitized scent file from a Hollywood film-industry site,  Scentsofthestars.com.

• Maggie had no trouble remembering Johnny's scent, since she spent a considerable time trying to track him down during the filming of The Tourist in Venice.

Here's our video, shot earlier today, of Maggie putting her nose to the grindstone (or at least to the stone sill of Johnny Depp's back door) as a service dog for the entertainment-gossip industry:

 

On the trail of Johnny Depp, take 3

ABOVE: Maggie poses proudly at the Punto della Dogana after tracking Johnny Depp to his cinematic lair.

Maggie is still miffed at Johnny Depp for his failure to e-mail her, but she's emerged from her bed (where she'd been pining) and resumed her duties as a celebrity-sniffing service dog.

A few hours ago, she caught a trace of Johnny's DNA on the breeze from across the Giudecca Canal, drawing our attention to a night shoot for The Tourist, which co-stars the wispy-bearded actor and Angelina Jolie. 

For a video of the movie set, see our Venice Travel Blog post, 'The Tourist' Movie Location: La Giudecca.