Travelogue Part 2 of ?

Both my wife and I are very fond of dogs, perhaps even too much so. Part of the reason for the timing of our NY trip was to attend at least parts of the 130th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. We’ve watched it on TV more years than we care to remember and have attended other shows in the past. Not that we’re big dog snobs, after all our dog is a mutt. It is interesting to see the groups of purebreds – and what makes one better than another - and to see the breeds one doesn’t see often. We had high hopes for this show because of the practice of “benching”, meaning that the dogs were to be in a specified area where we could see them up close for most of the day.

Our seatmate on the eastbound flight was a breeder who was exhibiting at the show. She described both the benching area and the breed judging as a crowded nightmare. Still, we had the tickets and wanted to take our chances.

My wife’s tastes in dogs tend to the pretty and cuddly: Golden Retrievers, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Rough Collies and the odd Corgi. I’m partial to the more lupine Alaskan Malamute and Siberian Husky, the vulpine Finnish Spitz, American Eskimo Dog, and Shiba Inu, and the odd Borzoi. (Fittingly our dog is a mix of Golden Retriever and some Malamute or Husky.) Given that we had advance purchase Powerball tickets, I daydreamed about retiring to the country to raise dogs. I’m at the office today.

Madison Square Garden is full of signs reminding that it’s the world’s most famous arena. It’s also among the most decrepit and dated in North America. It is a breeze to enter from Penn Station, though. Later in the week plans were announced for the replacement of the arena – and not a moment too soon.

The benching area wasn’t nearly so bad as we had been led to believe. We even spotted our seatmate and wished her luck with her pup, though to no avail. Even with thousands of folks about, most were quite pleasant, even if some were rather oddly familiar. I guess when you spend most of your time around critters that stick their noses in their peer’s butts, you lose some sense of social boundaries.

The highlight of the show was meeting a few of a dog we’d hitherto only seen on TV: the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever a/k/a the Toller. This is a little (~35 lb.) dog who looks a lot like a miniature golden, but with a great deal more energy, initiative and curiosity. There aren’t very many of this dog, so getting one from rescue or shelter (as we’re prone to do for our next dog) doesn’t seem highly likely. Another highlight of the show proper was a visit with an exuberant Brittany – a less uncommon breed to which I’d previously given little thought.

We got together with a friend to have lunch at Lindy’s, and found that its noted cheesecake isn’t as good as the one my wife makes that’s supposedly the same recipe.