Mia (1051) – Shady Pets

Mia

Shady Dog Pet ID: 1051

My hang out: San Diego, CA (USA)

My mug shots …

Here’s my story ...

Ever since I acquired Mia as a puppy, she has been my one true love. She’s smart, curious, energetic, feisty, playful and loves to be the center of attention, which is what they say is true of most Pomeranians, but my Mia was something special.

I wanted to show her off to the world so they too could see her magic. I had my eyes on the big one, the Westminster Kennel Club Annual Dog Show, which tens of thousands of people attend and is broadcast on TV—on Fox Sports 2, no less. We would become champions!

But first we had to get there. We decided to join the Silver Bay Kennel Club of San Diego (SBKC), which is one of the oldest kennel clubs in Southern California and hosts two shows a year. We’d win the first show, then quality for the Westminster. Mia would be the youngest champion ever.

We watched a few dog obedience training videos on YouTube. We practiced and practiced and before long we had it down: sit, stay, come. No problem.

I paid the $40 entry fee.

When we arrived at the show, we discovered ourselves lost in a zoo of dogs; over 400!

We made it to the check-in desk. We were in group 34; Rookie Toy Dog.

“Rookie?”, I asked.

“It’s your first show, right?”

“But does the winner get to go to Westminster?”

The lady at the desk almost fell off her seat laughing.

She collected herself, “oh god no!”

“You have to rank in the top 2 of the open event here, then rank in top 2 of the western regionals, then you’re in.”

Hmmm. This was going to be harder than I thought.

“OK, so what now?”

She handed over my yellow arm badge. We were ready!

The group before us was comprised of 15 Great Danes. Next to Mia, we were like mice. One of them passed right in front of us, squatted down, looked me straight in the eye, then left an elephant size poop. Luckily the show had their hazmat team clean up the mess. Could that be an omen?

Then it was our turn. The judge was wearing a flowery red jumpsuit, with one of her arms sleeveless and sporting some all-encompassing webbing that may or may not have been a henna, but in either case made her look like reptile. Needless to say, both Mia and I were a little intimidated.

“Line up!” she commanded.

I unhooked Mia’s leash and we entered the arena.

“Heal.”

Mia listened as she trotted alongside me. At the moment, I thought that winning was inevitable. A call from the Westminster director was already on its way.

Then Mia decided the little Dachshund in front of us needed a timely butt sniffing.

I was mortified. Mia, on the hand, seemed totally unfazed by the grandeur of her surroundings.

“Mia! Mia, for Chrissake, heal.”

We got to the lineup and all the dogs sat by their masters without a word. But not Mia. She just stood there, waiting for my command.

I tried to say the word ‘sit’ without moving my lips and inadvertently said ‘shit’ instead. Listen, don’t judge me. You try to saying ‘sit’ without moving your lips.

In any case, Mia just wagged her tail.

I just blurted it out. “Sit!”

Mia sat.

The judge gave me the evil eye before marking something on her sheet. I’m guessing that lost us 25 points.

Then the judge commanded, “trot around the rink.”

As we ‘trotted’, Mia suddenly got the urge to play. She ran out into the center of the rink, looked at me and barked. I knew what she wanted to do: ‘play ball’.

I froze and, for a second, was more than happy to pretend she wasn’t my dog.

Then, with the eyes of everyone in the arena were on me, I ran to Mia, picked her up and raced out of the rink. I grabbed our bag and drove us home as fast as I could.

I thought she was at least entertaining!

After that fateful day, we changed our inspiration.

From that day forward, playing ball with the kids in the park would be our championship.

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