Baffled and afraid, Charlie Hebdo mascot Lila the spaniel, searches for her cartoonist friends

Baffled and afraid–a little Cocker Spaniel, who survived the Charlie Hebdo attack, now moves around in the office, looking for her favourite– cartoonist Jean Cabut, known as Cabu. Cabu was one of the cartoonists killed in the attack on the newspaper office by members of an Islamist terror group. During the terrorist attack, Lila, the dog miraculously escaped the massacre. According to the newspaper La Repubblica, the cocker now has become the mascot of Charlie Hebdo. [caption id=“attachment_2045327” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image from Twitter[/caption] “Lila was in the newsroom during the attack. Spared by terrorists, Lila has become the mascot of the magazine,” notes the French newspaper, as reported by Huffington Post.

La mascotte della redazione di #CHARLIE_HEBDO, un dolcissimo cocker. pic.twitter.com/wNh7AOhwC9

— Anais Ginori (@anaisginori) January 12, 2015

Lila was the silent witness of the horror at the French satirical magazine that killed 12 people. “As the ‘house’ dog and mascot of the staff, Lila was a familiar and much loved figure to staff and visitors alike. She greeted all with a friendly wave of her tail but that morning, the day of the slayings, she was sticking close to her favourite - cartoonist Jean Cabut,” reports Daily Mail. In a moving interview with Le Monde, Sigolene Vinson, crime reporter with the satirical magazine, described the horror on that day the terrorists attacked the magazine. One of the gunaman told her that don’t kill women, so she would be spared. ‘As I lay there, not sure if they were really gone, shots rang out in the distance, in the street. And then I heard Lila with her tiny steps,’ she was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, in an emotional act of defiance, Charlie Hebdo resurrected its irreverent and often provocative newspaper on Tuesday, featuring a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover that drew immediate criticism and threats of more violence. The newspaper unapologetically skewered other religions as well, and bragged that Sunday’s turnout of a million people at a march in Paris to condemn terrorism was larger “than for Mass.” “For the past week, Charlie, an atheist newspaper, has achieved more miracles than all the saints and prophets combined,” it said in the edition’s lead editorial. “The one we are most proud of is that you have in your hands the newspaper that we always made.” Working out of borrowed offices, surviving staff published an unprecedented print run of 3 million copies — more than 50 times the usual circulation.