Who Says Biggest is Best?!

Kathleen & Allen Shoup with Hobbs

Bob Cremin, "da judge", Pepper, and Patti Payne

Yesterday at the Dog Days of Summer Party at Dave & Sally Maryatt’s beautiful home and gardens in the Highlands, it was hilarious to watch the big and little dogs interact with one another. My favorite one to watch was Connie Blumenthal’s little Pug/Chihuahua/Boston Terrier mix, Valentine. She looked like a tiny black speeding bullet rocketing around the lawn as she enticed the big dogs to chase her. The dogs would race around the people as if they were part of the obstacle course until Valentine would ultimately run underneath a chair where the big dogs would get stuck and couldn’t follow her. She got this same game going over and over again.

Rufus, the party host Golden Retriever, snarled at the Shoup’s Hungarian Vizsla, Hobbs, during the dinner and Hobbs was so embarrassed with the encounter that he faced the wall for the rest of the dinner. Sitting at the same table at eye level with the guests was Lorna Kneeland’s sister’s dog, Tony, a HUGE Alaska Malamute that was twice the size of Lorna.

The dog that had the most impeccable manners was definitely Lilly, Kevin Swett’s beautiful Yellow Lab that is a highly trained companion dog and recently birthed her first litter. Also, during dinner, Dave McGinnis’ dog, Leo, wrapped his leash around the leg of the pop-up awning (that luckily wasn’t needed since there was no rain) and just about brought the whole thing crashing down on top of the tables. That crisis was happily averted at least a couple of times.

To see a list of all the dogs and their awards, please check out this link on the ZINO Society blog.

With the death of our little Callie the Maltese in April, Ken and I have been “dogless”, but this party really got me in the mood to put my heart out there again and fall in love with another puppy . . . soon! All in all, it was a perfect day for dogs and dog-lovers.