Unfortunately for us, there is no date on the back of the photo attached to this story. Nor is there a name for the woman, or the dog, nor is there a location.
We can imagine it may be post-Second World War? Maybe earlier?
It does look like the pooch was primed to be presented in some kind of dog show. Which is perfect, as today, Thursday, Nov. 28, is National Dog Show Day.
That makes me hearken back to one of my favourite stories of my career, the true rags to riches story of Miss P, a four-year-old beagle from Enderby, who captured hearts all around the North Okanagan and globe in February of 2015.
Beaglemania.
Miss. P – owned by the Enderby mother-daughter combo of Lori and Kaitlyn Crandlemire, and American breeder Eddie Dziuk – won the Grand Daddy of all dog shows that year, capturing Best In Show at the famed Westminster Kennel Club event.
While her actual registered name was CH Tashtins Lookin For Trouble, Miss P (for Peyton) won the hound group to advance to the final group. There, in front of 18,000 riveted fans for the then 139th annual show at legendary Madison Square Garden, Miss P beat out six other dogs for the Best in Show title. She defeated a black standard poodle, old English sheepdog, English springer spaniel, Portuguese water dog, shih tzu and Skye terrier.
The shih tzu was owned by famous U.S. 1970s kidnap victim Patty Hearst, while the Portuguese water dog was a relation to then-U.S. President Barack Obama’s dog, Sunny.
Greg McCune was Mayor of Enderby at the time, and the owner/operator of Sutherland's Bakery was on the phone the next day.
A lot.
“I’ve fielded more phone calls about the beagle than in all the time Sir Anthony Hopkins was here,” said McCune (Hopkins, a best actor Oscar winner, was in the city in late 2014 shooting a movie, making friends with a lot of local residents as he happily posed for pictures).
“Let’s see, there’s been calls from Boston, London, England, Toronto, Vancouver, all over the place.”
Terriers, up to 2015, had won Best in Show at Westminster 46 times.
According to The Washington Post in 2015, the only other time a beagle was named Best in Show was in 2008, and it was Miss P’s great uncle, Uno, who won the competition.
Sadly, Miss P. crossed the rainbow bridge in 2020.
