All Shots

one of his favorite themes, namely, the obligation of every one of us to experience and express overwhelming joy and gratitude in response to the multifarious beauties of nature that surrounded us. The beauties of nature he had in mind were the golden retrievers, Alaskan malamutes, Akitas, West Highland white terriers, German shepherd dogs, Belgian sheepdogs, and so forth and so on that did, in fact, surround us and were, in fact, wonderfully diverse and extraordinarily beautiful and thus cause for joy and gratitude.
    “ ‘The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings,’ ” Buck proclaimed.
    We had missed only the beginning of the malamute judging. As we approached the ring, my father consulted the show catalog and said, “She’s going to do Open now. Small entry. Pitiful. I don’t know why you bothered.”
    “Because you told me to.” Almost whispering, I said, ‘You told me that a friend of a friend of yours said that Mrs.Woofenden was going to draw a very small entry and asked you as a big favor to see if you could help. I bothered because you leaned on me and because I am a good sport and a nice person. As you perfectly well know, all Sammy needs Is one major, and this isn’t a major. He’s here because you wanted him entered.” Let’s settle for saying that all Sammy needed to finish his championship was one more big win, a “major,” and that today’s entry was too small to count. In normal tones, I added, “And Rowdy? Buck, is this your first show? I’m interested in the Group.”
    Summary: breeds are judged first. The Best of Breed winners, one for each breed, then compete in the judging of the Groups to which they belong. If Rowdy went BOB, Best of Breed, as I hoped he’d do, he’d then compete in the Working Group, which is to say, the judging of the BOB winners from the breeds that belonged to the Working Group: the Akita, the Siberian husky, the Rottweiler, the Newfoundland, and so on. Apples and oranges? Not really. Anyway, Rowdy had a good chance of going BOB, and I wanted a placement in the group. Placement: first through fourth place, preferably guess which one, but it’s an honor to place in the group at all. Incidentally, my hope for a group placement was why I’d entered two dogs who might compete against each other for Best of Breed and why Teller would handle Rowdy in Best of Breed: if Rowdy went BOB, thus getting his ticket to the group, I thought he’d place there, whereas Sammy, gorgeous though he was, just didn’t have the maturity to be serious competition in the group.
    Anyway, when I’d finished telling Buck what he already knew, I spotted my dogs and my handlers, and I went flying to the ring, where Mrs. Woofenden was about to judge Open Dogs, that is, Sammy’s class, which consisted of males that had not completed their championships. Into that ring, my expensive professional handler, Teller, was leading my special, toy champion, my consistent group placer, namely Rowdy. Mindful of the AKC’s prohibition against creating any sort of disturbance at a show, I came to a halt next to Teller and Rowdy and said in the softest voice I could manage, “Teller, stop! You have the wrong dog!”
     

CHAPTER 12
     
    I am happy to report that the mix-up had no serious consequences. Indeed, if I hadn’t appeared in time to prevent Teller from showing Rowdy in place of Sammy, the result wouldn’t have been disastrous; everyone, including Mrs. Woofenden, would’ve understood that Teller had made an innocent mistake, albeit a stupid and careless one. Rowdy and Sammy, father and son, did look a lot alike, especially to people who didn’t know them. Still, it’s almost certain that one of the other exhibitors or spectators would’ve spotted the error; Rowdy was so well known that someone would’ve recognized him and spoken up. Teller had no excuse; even if he’d never seen Rowdy before, he should’ve known which dog was which. Sammy lacked Rowdy’s physical maturity; he hadn’t quite finished filling out. Furthermore, Rowdy’s superb natural showmanship and his experience in the ring meant that he shifted into show-off mode well outside the baby gates, whereas Sammy’s demeanor was puppyish. As to the actual show results, Sammy went Winners Dog, Phyllis’s Heart went Winners Bitch and Best of Winners, and Rowdy took the breed and got a Group II, so I couldn’t complain, especially because the Newf that won the Group was