pet connection

When I’m in New York, I don’t usually have time to read the paper, but this year I’m getting all my coverage from the NY Times instead of firsthand. Sunday’s paper had a piece by Katie Thomas on the Livingstons, dog handlers who grew up in the sport and made it their career.

The Livingstons are unusual even in the insular dog community, where husbands and wives often meet in the ring and children end up taking over the family business. Not only did the Livingston children choose the same profession, each has attained a measure of success.

Clint, Brian and Colette together are showing 25 dogs at Westminster, ranging from a Papillon to a Mastiff. Thomas describes them as growing up in the “eccentric milieu of dog shows.” Hmm. Now I guess I can say that I grew up in the eccentric milieu of horse shows. That sounds much more interesting than it actually was. A lot of hard work and waiting around and long rides in the truck or RV are what I remember most. Read the rest here.

Once again, I’ll miss the opportunity to attend The Dog Sale, an auction of dog art by Bonhams. It’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to attend. It’s always on my to-do list and it always gets knocked off by something else. But they were kind enough to send me a catalog so I could drool over the paintings, jewelry, antique dog collars and statuary that will be on offer tomorrow. The dog collars include at least one with several bells on it, which apparently were tres chic for Pugs some 130 years ago, according to dog art connoisseur and gallery owner William Secord, to whom I spoke a while back for an article on Pug art. Lots of spaniel items that I covet, from a hooked rug to a portrait of a black and tan Cavalier to, well, lots more. If you love dogs and art and happen to be in the NYC area, you might want to check it out.

One of the regular pre-Westminster events is a fund-raiser for the nonprofit Angel on a Leash therapy dog program. Attending this year were five former Westminster winners: Uno, James, Spice, J.R. and Rufus. It was a gathering of elite old-timers as estimable, dog-wise, as the first class of baseball Hall of Famers in 1936, wrote NYT reporter Richard Sandomir.

Angel on a Leash president/CEO David Frei was there, of course. He predicted that ticket sales to the show might be down on Monday because of the economy.

Frei did a lot of traveling last year with Uno, as Christie reported in an earlier interview with him. I talked to him a few months ago for a Westminster preview article that appeared in Dog World. He and Uno had quite a few entertaining experiences on the road, especially at the airport. Uno flies in the cabin with Frei and even has his own seat.

He’s got his own ticket like any other passenger, and when he travels with me the ticket says Uno Frei on it. Every once in a while, someone in security will say ‘Hey, that dog’s going on the plane; he’s supposed to be in a container.’ I say, ‘No, he’s not; he’s got a ticket.’ Recently the computer selected his ticket for additional screening. He was patted down and wanded in the security area. The TSA folks were amused by it and had fun with it, but they treated him with dignity and took his picture and had their pictures taken with him and took a copy of his ticket so they could show that they had searched him and made the world safe from terrorist Beagles.

Phew!