Friday, November 28, 2008

A Random List, Inspired by Yesterday...

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year.

No, not because it was Thanksgiving. I mean, I love turkey day, but we don't celebrate it here. When I went to college in upstate New York, every year my friend would invite me over to his house and we'd have a huge dinner with his family. I love any day that allows you to eat that much and just have a nice time with people. Americans have so many more days of gorging that we do. Sigh.

But no. I had no Thanksgiving Dinner, but I did get my National Dog Shows.

Crazy confession: I absolutely LOVE dog shows. I can't help it. I can't explain it. But I love them and can't stop watching them and I get very much into them and start rooting for my favorites and it's all a little strange, but awesome. Every year I wait for the Dog Shows, my favorite being the Westminster Show, which plays on USA for like three days and it's a seemingly endless parade of cute and fluffy dogs all primped up and looking super excited to be strutting around a room.

It's kind of psychotically glorious, really.

Yesterday was the National Dog Show, and it was a blast, though it was sadly shortened for time and I didn't get to see all the dogs. I hate when they do that. They pick a few to show you and ignore the others. Absurdly, it makes me feel sad for the ones who don't make it on screen.

I get really into it. Everything is such a hilarious show. You have the overly primped-up dogs (poodles. I hate primped up poodles), the hilarious little tiny dogs (oh man have you ever seen a show Pekingese? those things are awesome), the seriously gorgeous dogs that even the uneducated eye can tell are beautiful animals, the ugly dogs, the ones that sit down in the middle of the floor and don't move, because, well, they're dogs. Then there are the commentators, who every year say the same thing, and make horrible dog jokes. There are the handlers with their horrible shiny clothes and ugly shoes, the crazy crowds (honestly, who GOES to a dog show? I can't understand it).

And there is, always, invariably, the pangs of envy as I look at some of the dogs and think "Oh, God. I want one of those. I WANT!!" This happens a lot. By the end of the night I end up with fifteen fantasy dogs and I scare my fiance by claiming that one day I will have ten dogs in my house. I tell him I am just kidding.

I'm not kidding. Sucker.

Anyway, because I love dogs and I love lists, and I have to post pictures of everything, here are my Top 8 Fantasy Dogs. If I had money, space, time, money and a dream house with a giant yard, these are the dogs I would get:

1.
The Newfoundland. A few years ago one of these won the Westminster show, and I immediately fell in love. They're huge, yes, but they have to be some of the prettiest, sweetest dogs I have ever seen.

2.
Great Dane. Again, this one would be bigger than I am, but damn I love those dogs. And apparently they're as sweet and caring an animal as you could get. Bonus: scares bad people away.

3.
PBGV. Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen. Look at that thing. It's impossibly cute with its little legs and its hot dog body and the ears. They always look so happy.

4.
The Beagle. Who doesn't love beagles? They're little spitfires.

5.

The Miniature Schnauzer. They're so tiny, energetic, and gorgeous. I saw one of these at the pet store the other day, and had to force myself not to spend the small fortune on buying it. Beautiful dogs.

And now, the Terriers. Terriers are my downfall.

6.
Tibetan Terrier. Need I say more? Just look at that thing.

7.

Hands down one of the most beautiful little animals in the world. These are a bit stand-offish, but loyal.

8.
The Norfolk Terrier. I normally don't go for tiny dogs, but these just win my heart every single time I see one.

******

Ta-da. I was going to make it an even 10, but I don't feel strongly about any of the others. Runners up would be Dalmatians, Black Pekingese (they have the most hilarious faces), Corgis, English Bulldogs and Havanese.

But my heart belongs to mutts. All my life we'd had mutts. The three I have right now, my three stinky babies, are part Havanese, part Maltese and part something else. They're lazy and kind of dumb, but they also hunt down mice and they are incredibly patient, specially with children.

Woof.

1 comment:

moo... said...

woof woof! the great thing with mutts is that you can pack, say, four of your favourite dog breeds into one perfect canine. this would enable you to have two dogs rather than ten, if you just got the right mix. although i'm wondering what a newfoundland-great dane-norfolk terrier-beagle mix would look like.

i'd love to see you walk straight-backed under the legs of a great dane. do you think you could ride them? *nirg*