Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club last night featured some spectacular dogs, including a bloodhound, a Samoyed, a German shepherd, and a French bulldog. I was pulling for the bloodhound, but would have been happy with the Samoyed or shepherd; deep down I was pretty sure the Maltese would win, a dog that looked to be from a different planet.
But then the judge appeared. He was unshaven (except for his head) and didn’t look like the toy dog type. And sure enough, he picked the bloodhound. As the winner was coolly accepting congratulations, I thought of James Thurber. “I am pretty sure that Heaven,” the great humorist wrote, "will be densely populated with bloodhounds.”
