Two Days at the Dog Show (Someone wash out my eyes!)

Oh, dog shows. Ladies with big butts in purple polyester suits. Dogs with shaved asses. Judges grabbing all the doggies' balls. I just kept thinking, god, please let there be an alien here from a distant galaxy taking notes on our ridiculous planet. I never found the space man with his notepad, but I'm pretty sure I saw just about every other bizarre form of life this past weekend at the IKC Dog Show at McCormick Place.



CBBR and friends with adoptable Lola (left) and
obedience champ, Kobe.

CBBR has a booth at the show every year to raise money for pit bull rescue and to educate the throngs of visitors about the plight of pit bulls (who of course are not a breed that's recognized by the American Kennel Club, and whose lives tend to be drastically less pampered than those of the deodorized Dandy Dinmont whatevers in the show ring.) This is my fourth year behind the CBBR booth, and it's FINALLY getting a little easier to tolerate. Though we met our share of ding dongs, we were impressed by how many people came to our booth to tell us, for instance, that their neighbor's pit bull is the best dog in the neighborhood, or that they just can't wait to make their next dog a pittie. We were also very pleased to meet the owners of a super sexy little purebred Staffordshire Bull Terrier, who donated his services wearing our donation vest for an hour. (This is extra touching because most Staffie and Am Staff exhibitors would rather die than acknowledge that their dog has any relation to a lowly pit bull.) We were also joined by two fantastic young guys whose pit bull, Kobe, had spent the day competing in the mixed breed obedience classes and showing the bougie dogs what's what.



Pimpin' ain't easy. Little Mae more than paid her
own bills, raising $200 in donations.



I have to admit, I started to get the feeling that all of our outreach and education was beginning to add up to less ignorance about pitties. You can keep your weird show dogs and all the bizarre Victorian eugenics of the dog show world, but I must say, we had a great weekend raising money and changing minds about the dogs who need it most. Cheers to all the CBBR volunteers, supporters, and foster dogs who worked so hard to make the long, crazy weekend at IKC a big success. And, for the record, DON'T SHOP! ADOPT!