Dear Kid,
Have. You. Heard. The. News.
Big news.
Colossal news.
News to make the fur stand up on the back of your neck. At the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
Westminster? The show is in New York. Westminster is not. Actually, it turns out that the WKC is not named after the Westminster in England. It was named after a hotel in Manhattan where (and I quote) “sporting gentlemen used to meet in the bar to drink and lie about their shooting accomplishments. Eventually they formed a club and bought a training area and kennel. They kept their dogs there and hired a trainer.”
The WKC Dog Show has been around for a long time (and by “long time” I mean has been in all four Madison Square Gardens. Madisons Square Garden? Madison Squared Garden?).
There are always new things in shows like this. New sponsors, new rules, new hosts, new judges. This year, “new” is going a step further. Not only are there new breed being shown (including Ewok), but for the first time the show includes cats.
As in Meow.
As in the big Dog Show (the one with “Dog Show” in its name) is including cats.
Don’t get me wrong—I like cats. I love that they know they’re smarter than everyone around them. And I am not a member of the WKC, so I have no emotional attachment to their traditions.
But I’m having a little trouble reconciling cats at a dog show. I always thought cats were more evolved than that, more into ruling by power than by beauty pageant pomp and ceremony.
Maybe I just need to get with the times. To recognize that how an animal self-identifies is more important than the species he or she was born with.
To be fair, the cats are not going compete or parade around the ring. They are going to be on display in their booths. Where they can be cats.
At the Dog Show.
2017 is shaping up to be a weird year.
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