136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Is In The Books!

Mom and Grandma finished watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last night. The first group up on the second night of group judging was the Sporting Group. These dogs are the hunters' friends, the gun dogs. The emblem of the WKC is a Pointer, like Josh from Colorado. The group also contains the ever-popular Labrador Retriever and Golden Retriever. There is another breed that is a favorite of Mom's, the Clumber Spaniel. She says that if Grandpa was a dog he'd be the Clumber Spaniel! Mom's pick to win the group was Max the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and Grandma went with the Spinone Italiano, Atticus. The winner was the Irish Setter, Emily. She had 15 puppies last May and still had a killer figure! MOL!

The next group was the Working Group. This group includes the Portuguese Water Dog, which is what Bo Obama is. The Tibetan Mastiff in the group, Major, served in his owners' wedding party earlier in the day-he gave away the bride! Imagine that, a wedding on Valentine's Day at Westminster. How fun! Mom chose the Doberman Pinscher, Fifi. She has her own Facebook page, The Fifinator. Grandma chose the Great Pyrenees, Raleigh who actually works as a livestock guardian for free-range chickens. Guess what? Mom finally picked a winner! Fifi went to the Best In Show judging!

The last group of the night was the Terrier Group. A new breed was part of this group this year: the Cesky Terrier represented by 7-year-old Brubeck. It also includes the Scottish Terrier that they described as "openly feels superior to its owner." I wonder if they're part cat! Mom almost picked the Colored Bull Terrier to win, but decided to go with the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Daphne. Mom thought she had a great smile and liked the fact that Daphne loved to spend her time playing fetch with a special needs child. Grandma picked the Airedale Terrier, Dane. The winner was the Kerry Blue Terrier, Chelsey.

Best In Show judging is always exciting. Competing for the ribbon was the Wirehaired Dachshund, Pekingese, Dalmatian, German Shepherd Dog, Irish Setter, Doberman Pinscher and Kerry Blue Terrier. Mom was rooting for Fifi, the Dobie and Grandma thought Emily the Irish Setter was going to win. The winner turned out to be Malachy the Pekingese. Mom was shocked! She really thought Fifi had it in the bag.

Next year's Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show will be held February 11 & 12, 2013. I'll be watching, will you?

Mom Has Gone to the Dogs

What I'm about to say is shocking, especially to my kitty readers. My mom is a *whispers* dog person! I know, I know. How can that be? She doesn't even own a dog! She volunteers with cats, has owned more cats in her life than dogs and is the best cat-mom a kitty could ask for. Still, she loves dogs. So this time of year is like a holiday to her-it's Westminster time.


Yesterday was day one of the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Mom and Grandma have made a tradition of watching it together every year and when Mom moved away, that didn't change. She travels to Wichita to stay with Grandma for a few days and watch the dog show. It's their special "bonding time" I guess. *rolls eyes* They eat out, go shopping and then in the evenings they settle in for the doggie festivities. They have a great time oohing and ahhing over the dogs, then they each pick their favorite one to win.


Mom's favorite group is the hounds. Her heart dog was a sighthound, a borzoi named Oscar. Before that, she had another sighthound, a whippet named Crystal when she was growing up. She just has a thing for those skinny dogs.


This year there was a new breed in the hound group, the American English Coonhound. They said the breed is supposed to be kind and have a "houndy" expression. The lucky American English Coonhound to represent his breed in the group judging was named Gin. The whippet in the group was Chanel, who Mom recognized. She actually won the hound group two years ago. She was also gaga over the Ibizan Hound and the Petit Basset Griffon Vandeen or PBGV. She learned that there are less than 1000 Otterhounds in the world, which made her sad. She hates to think that any breed would become extinct. Her favorite to win, and Grandma's too, was the Borzoi. His name was Aiden and he gets to go to McDonald's after every show for a plain McDouble. Unfortunately, he didn't win, didn't even get in the top four. The winner of the hound group was the Wirehaired Dachshund named Cinders. The PBGV came in second and Chanel the whippet came in third.


Next was the Toy Group. This is probably Mom's least favorite group, but she still thinks the dogs are cute. She thought Andy the Silky Terrier was cool because he had attitude. They said he was into home remodeling-he chewed a pipe once and caused a flood! MOL! Mom's pick in this group was the Chinese Crested and Grandma's was the Italian Greyhound. Again, they were both wrong. The Pekingese, Malachy, won, but that bad boy Andy came in fourth!


The third group to show on the first night was the non-sporting group. This group had two new breeds this year. First was the Norwegian Lundehund. Mom fell in love with this breed. They have very flexible skeletons and six toes on each foot. This is because they used to hunt puffins and would climb rocks to get to them. The other new breed was the Xoloitzcuintli or Xolo for short. They are a hairless breed, which Mom really loves. The Xolo in the group was named Armani and was Mom's pick to win. Grandma's pick was the Tibetan Spaniel named Jackson, after Allen Jackson because he loves to sing. Mom was also kind of pulling for the Keeshond named Journey because she was from our city, Shawnee, KS! Again, they couldn't pick the winner. The Dalmatian named Ian won. A Dalmatian has never gone Best in Show, maybe this year it will happen!


The last group for the night was the herding group. My grandpa's dog, Yaz, belongs in this group. He's a Corgi mix. There are two Corgi breeds, the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, which is the one with the tail and the Pembroke Welsh Corgi who doesn't have a tail. This group also saw a couple of new breeds. The Entelbucher Mountain Dog is a Swiss breed and the Finnish Lapphund. Mom and Grandma both picked the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Pilot to win, but they were wrong again. The German Shepherd Dog, Cappy won the herding group.


Tonight the last three groups will be judged: the sporting group, the working group and the terrier group. After that, Best in Show will be picked and that dog will become a star, just like Hickory the Scottish Deerhound did last year! (Mom whooped and hollered so loud when she won I could hear her all the way up here in KC!)

#MOblogPaws - KC By The Numbers

The gang from ATonksTail.com are back to tell us more reasons BlogPaws should come to Kansas City!


Hi everyone! We're baaaack! Thanks to Sebastian & his mom for letting us guest post on their blog again about one of our fave topics - our hometown.

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Mommy loooves lists, so when she saw this one in the newspaper, she knew she had to share!

Kansas City is popping up on all sorts of national lists and here's where we rank in them:

Top Five

Kansas City was in the top 5 in.... (hit it, Faraday!)

#5 - Most Charity-Conscious City (Charity Navigator)

This is not ranked, as you might think, per capita. Instead, Charity Navigator looked at the financial health of the nonprofits in a city. And KC ranked fifth most healthy!

(That's because we have such big hearts)

#4 - Most Underrated US Cities (shermans-travel.com)

Did you know we house the US's only WW I Museum? We also have an American Jazz Muesum (we *are* the home of 19th & Vine after all) and the Negro League Baseball Muesum, to name a few.

#3 - America's Manliest Cities (Sperling's Best Places)

*puffs out chest* They must have seen my Fabio picture. 'Nuff said.

#2 - Top 10 Cities for Book Lovers (Livability.com)

As kittehs we love this! More lap time! Mommy definitely contributes to this statistic, since she loves to read.

aaaaand......

#1 - Favorite City for Barbecue (Travel + Leisure Magazine)

No really! We didn't make this up! Our city has tons and tons of places filled with the smoky mouth-watering aroma of barbecue. One of our faves is housed in a real live, still working gas station, too. YUM!

*giggle* But wait, there's more!

Other Honorable Mentions:

• 17th Most Literate City (Central Connecticut State University)
  
• 12th Smartest City (Daily Beast)
  
• 14th Best City for Families (Parenting magazine)
  
• 10th Most Affordable Place to Buy a Home (US News & World report)
  
• One of America's Best Ice Cream Cities (Food & Wine Magazine)
  
• 11th Most Frugal City - Hey! You can prolly get a coupon for that ice cream! (coupons.com)
  
• 9th Most Tattooed City - you gotta come over & check out Sebastian's Mom's Cattoo
  
• 2nd Most Drivable City in America (Travel + Leisure)

And we wrap this list up by mentioning something Sebastian's already blogged about:

Frommer's listing KC as a TOP 10 DESTINATION!! Woot!

Now don't you want to come visit us?

Wow! We sure have a lot of top rankings! Thanks again guys for contributing to #MOBlogPaws!

Camping With Camper

Sometimes when Mom volunteers, she hangs out with a bunch of different cats. She'll go kennel to kennel taking pictures of all the cats to play on my slideshow. She'll pet each one for a little bit, then move on to the next one. Other times, Mom spends more time with just one cat. That's exactly what she did this past Wednesday. She browsed around and decided to go into one of the hug rooms, Catfish Cove, where Camper is staying.


Camper is a male, yellow, medium-hair cat. He's 7 years old and is FIV positive. That just means he has a weakened immune system. He'll be able to live a full life, but if he gets sick, it will take a bit longer for him to recover. He should either be an only cat or live with other FIV positive cats. When he came to the shelter, he had a wound on his hip. Although it's healed up, he prefers not to be petted there. He likes pets on his head and upper body instead.

Mom sat with Camper for about an hour and a half. They sat together in a chair for a while, then he got down and went to his little campsite that one of the volunteers set up for him.

Isn't it cool? He's got a campfire and everything. Mom went and sat by the campfire with him. He was very quiet and calm. He enjoyed sitting on Mom's lap and she enjoyed sitting with him. Mom really likes evenings at the shelter like she spent with Camper. She gave him a lot of one-on-one time that he probably needs since he doesn't have a home of his own yet. At the same time, she was able to sit and relax, just listening to the sounds of Camper's purrs.


Volunteering is very special for Mom. Sometimes she gets distracted by other stuff and forgets how lucky she is to have the opportunity to give a homeless kitty a warm lap to sit on for a little while. It's rewarding and gives her a sense of peace.


If you can volunteer, you should give it a try. Do it for yourself. Do it for homeless kitties like Camper.

Camper is available for adoption at Wayside Waifs in Kansas City.

Featured Furry: Kookie and Fluffy

This edition of Featured Furry spotlights two doggies, Fluffy and Kookie. They're sisfur dogs who were given up by their owner when she could no longer care for them. They're great girls who really need to find their forever home.


Fluffy is 6 years old and has vision problems. She's not completely blind, but can see shadows. Kookie is 5 years old and acts as Fluffy's caretaker. Both girls are housebroken and walk well on leashes.

Fluffy

Kookie

Recently, they were chosen to be furloughed, meaning they got a field trip out of the shelter to go home with a volunteer. Check out the video of them when they got to spend some time acting like normal dogs.





If you think you're the right match for these two full-figured gals, come out to Wayside Waifs and meet them. I'm sure you'll find they're about the sweetest doggies you'll ever meet!


Big thanks to Katie Quirk for the video!

Wordless Wednesday-Valentine Photo Shoot Outtakes