Have you ever been a regular anywhere?

Like, is there a place in your neighborhood where people recognize you when you walk in?

Or maybe the person working behind the counter always knows what you're going to order and they start getting it ready for you before you're even at the register?

Today, I want you to meet a regular at the Cafe de Fornos in Madrid around the year 1880.

Let's walk in with him, actually.

Cafe de Fornos is a busy place.

It's popular with artists and writers and bullfighters.

The sunlight is streaming through the windows.

It smells like coffee and pipe smoke. And everyone's laughing and having a good time.

And when you walk in with this regular, his name is Paco, everyone turns and gives you a little nod or a big smile.

They're like happy to see you. Hi Paco. Let's do the rounds with Paco. Everyone wants to say hi. People are offering up little bites of whatever they have on their plate. Here, have some steak, or maybe if you're in the mood for a dessert, have a little pastry. You could probably go and get your own table if you really wanted to, but why bother when you can go around and enjoy a little bit of the food off of everybody's plate and hang out with

everybody in the house. Sounds pretty cool. And at this point, there's one other thing I should

mention about Paco, which is Paco is not just any regular. Paco is a dog. I'm Amanda McGowan, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible, and wondrous places.

Today we're meeting Paco, Madrid's most famous canine resident.

In the 1800s, Paco was the talk of the town, and today he has been immortalized forever in the city that he loved and that loved him back.

That story after this.

Burstays can be a little hard to pin down with stray dogs, but we actually have a pretty

specific date when this story began. It was October 4, 1879. Sitting at the Cafe de Fornos is a man

named Gonzalo de Savedra Iqueto, the Marques of Bogoraya.

He was an important guy, a nobleman and later the mayor of the city of Madrid, but on October 4th he was having dinner, beef or some other kind of delicious roast.

And while he was sitting there eating, a dog entered the cafe.

...