Westminster Dog Show USA

“The whole reason I was doing this was that I wanted to experience it. I wanted to know what a high-stakes show was like, and what attracted my fiancée to it. I wanted to take in the sights, the sounds, the smells, so I could share that experience with her later. Instead, I spent the whole time in the ring trying to catch my breath and trying not to puke or faint. Oliver, meanwhile, had not been in a ring in six months, so he spent all his time trying to make friends with the other dogs. When we lined up, he would turn around and lick the face of the dog behind him. When I stacked him, he would immediately step forward to sniff the butt of the dog ahead of him.”

“So there I was for probably the next half hour, sitting with this amazing dog I had only just met while scores of people wandered up and asked me all the same sorts of questions I had just been asking her. At least a good 90% of them left none the wiser that I had no connection to this dog, and literally everything I knew about him, the breed, the show, and indeed this whole slightly strange world I had learned since lunch that day. The other 10% left probably pretty confused when I answered their simple question with the admission that I had no idea because this wasn't actually my dog and I didn't in fact even know the owner. It was honestly kind of a surreal experience.”