Going for Breed

As if my poor heart hadn't had enough emotional upheaval, Oscar had to go and win Best of Breed on Saturday. What's he trying to do, kill me?

Ha! Yes! Oscar won Best of Breed on Saturday under Judge Don Jones. This was a funny thing. I'm sure Dad was laughing his head off as he watched me watch Os and Gary.

Here's the gist:

First it was weird not having a dog in the classes. I kept feeling like I needed to be somewhere, but there was nowhere for me to be until I took the ChocoDIva in. So in we went in Open Bitches (where we both SO belong), which we won. I'm happy and hopeful, for there seem to be a lot of girls there. My thought processes on show days, however, are never ever reliable as I'm a mass of nerves. I don't want to spend too mcuh time of Choco's wins as she deserves her own posts when I get done with the OsMan. She won Winner's Bitch, though and so in we went for Breed.

Except Mr. Jones had an observer in the ring this day and seemed determined to do things in a certain way that had everyone very confused. He held WD and WB out, then kicked the females competing for breed out of the ring too, which included Os and Choc's neice Roxie. He only wanted the males in at first. Then I think he completly dismissed a few of them. Then he brought the females back in and then the WD and WB. The Winner's dog, by the way, was Beowulf's something something Balou Moon who is a beautiful dog who also finished his championship this weekend.

Anyway, I'm at the end of the line in the ring where it sort of wraps around a corner watching as the judge lines up Os and another dog and seems to judge them head to head. He's whispering back and forth with his observer and seems to be giving it a lot of thought and then makes them each go down to the corner and back again and line up at the opposite side. The other dog had been in front of Oscar, but when they came back from the little trot, he had Oscar go ahead of this other dog. Meanwhile, I'm over in this corner making ridiculous noises and wondering if I'm really seeing what I'm seeing. Ann Skyler-Cobbett was handling Balou and being very kind to me and I think it was her presence that kept me from being insane. Then the judge pointed to Oscar. Mind you, I'm still in the ring with Chocolate! I started jumping up and down in place and then covered my mouth, 'cause I just knew I was going to scream. Poor Chocolate was sorely neglected for those few moments. But my boy, the day old champion, had just won BEST OF BREED!

In future, I'll handle it better, I'm sure, but Saturday I cried. Then we called Jim and I screamed. My boy, my baby boy.

He entered the Working Class Group ring Saturday about 4:30pm, representing the Mastiff with style at the hands of CJ Harve. I had to hide, along with Dad, Mom and Jim who had dropped everything to come and watch. We all watched from behind the crowd. I cried some more.


We didn't make the cut this time, but we'd made it to group and I couldn't have been happier. As everyone knows, I have no children and never will. Os and Choc are my children and watching him strut his stuff in the Group Ring must have felt like what a parent feels when a child graduates or some similar accomplishment. We'd worked so hard, put in so much effort and there was the reward. And I think Os knew he was getting some attention. In a couple of the pictures, CJ's talking to the crowd around the ring and Os looks like he's grinning, I swear.


And then when he did his down and back for the judge, people in the crowd, strangers, cheered for him. That was mind-numbingly amazing. Of course I think he's beautiful. Of course his breeder thinks he's beautiful. But these were strangers, and yet dog people, who thought my baby boy was worthy of their claps and cheers. Wow.