Robin Agnew
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao-Tzu
We've been watching lots of long journeys this week, if we watch any Olympic coverage. The pairs skaters who took the gold in their 4th Olympics; the mogul skiier who waited for a gold medal for four years after wiping out last time around; Evan Lycecheck capturing the gold medal over an almost prohibitive favorite, thanks to sheer hard work and determination. The olypmics are full of incredible stories like that. However, there's one closer to home (for me, at least) that I'd like to talk about. That's the journey my parents completed this week at Madison Square Garden.
My parents have been a part of the dog world forever, it seems. I read a quote my dad gave somewhere this week that it's been 45 years. Both of my parents love animals. My mother had a sheltie she showed in high school; my dad grew up on a farm. It's always been a link. One of our family's first dogs, a toy poodle, had to be given away because she liked to jump in my crib in a not too friendly fashion.
But our first collective family doggie memory is probably our family West Highland Whiter Terrier, Rosie. Rosie was the begining of my parents' immersion in the world of terriers, a group they have embraced whole heartedly. Lots of our childhood memories are of dog shows - many, many dog shows, many, many shows where Mom's dog was not the winner, but where she enjoyed being a part of the whole thing.
Eventually when my parents moved from Illinois to Michigan, they added a kennel, and their dogs now had handlers, someone other than my mother. The dogs also started to win in a more regular fashion. Again not all the time, but frequently. Through this journey mom had westies but she and dad also had a Jack Russell and a Wire Fox Terrier. But it wasn't until they met an adorable Scottie puppy, born in their kennel and bred by Mary O'Neal, who runs their kennel, that their fortunes truly changed.
Finding a "perfect" animal, of course, is like finding lightning in a bottle. It's rare (ask probably anyone who races horses) and it's never guranteed. Roundtown Mercedes of Maryscot, as this perfect little puppy was named, started to win and win and win. She and her handler, Gabriel Rangel, have been all over the country, winning for the last couple of years. She is also better known as Sadie.
This was Sadie's big year, though. Thanks to the number of her wins (she just completed 112 Best in Shows) she was Dog of the Year for 2009. She won the giant terrier specialty in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She won the Eukanuba Show and the Philadelphia show. Last year she won the terrier group at Westminster, and it was planned that she would return, and then retire.
I don't know if you follow dogs at all, but Westminster is the Big Kahuna of dog shows. Sadie won it this past Tuesday which was truly an incredible achievement for my parents, who, as I've pointed out, have been showing dogs for a long, long time. The experience was an overwhleming one for them - it's amazing how much press coverage this event gets. My mom told me she was "speechless with anxiety" the whole Best in Show day, as nothing in a sporting event is ever a sure thing, despite Sadie being a heavy favotite. The #1 dog only infrequently wins Westminster.
My folks are still taking all this in. Sadie is temporarily on her way back to California with her handler, but hopefully someday soon she'll come back to Michigan to have puppies. And the search for the next lightning in a bottle will continue.
As an added note, the "truth" from my theree choices was that the roadie for The Animals asked me to come along in Columbus, Ohio. Eric Burden even gave me a friendly wave from a nearby sofa!
