In 1850, Gerard de Nerval ceased conforming to existing ideas of suitable pets and aquired a lobster, which he led around the Jarin du Luxembourg on the end of a blue ribbon.
“Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog? Or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I have a liking for lobsters. They are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secretars of the sea, they don’t bark and they don’t graw upon one’s monadic privacy like dogs do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he wasn’t mad”.
