Westminster On My Mind

This past Monday and Tuesday we watched the Westminster Dog Show.  Well, I should say, we watched some of the show.   For some reason, I just can't get my mind wrapped around the toy dog group.  That said, there are some nice looking dogs out there (Annie is despondent because she is not AKC registered so she couldn't be in the show.  I told her she could go in drag, maybe as a poodle?).

But I keep thinking of all the primping and fussing the handlers do over the dogs.  And then I think about my two.  Who live quite amazing lives.  They have a routine.  They get outside for long walks or romps no less than twice a day, then an evening stroll just before bed.  They spend their weekends running amok.  They travel to wade in legendary rivers, swim in lakes, and bounce on hotel beds.  I guess I also fuss over them, but perhaps not their "grooming" (labs grooming is as follows: 1. throw ball into water.  2. Tell dog to go fetch.  3. repeat).

I recently saw one of those dog 'issues."  A young, unspayed female got "knocked up" and had puppies.  The owner of the dog can barely keep one dog, then got this female, then had puppies.  It was, in my judgmental moment, all wrong.  One can only wonder what those puppies lives will be like.

So if I had to chose between what goes on to get a dog to Westminster, or those puppies who are living in a broken down dog house with a flea ridden blanket, following their young mom roaming the neighborhood looking for food....well, primping a dog for the "ring" seems so much better.

"May we please have Sage and Annie: Labrador Retrievers Number 1 and 2."

Murphy's Day.