Golden Conformation Olympics

So the Westminster Dog Show marks an occasion in which a number of really beautiful golden retrievers and 184 mostly irrelevant other breeds get together in New York City to show off their stuff. I did not bother with watching any of the rest of the non-golden retriever portions of the competition for this reason. That it fell on Valentine Day's was especially nice; Pnin and I got to sip champagne while watching the above twenty-five glorious minutes of beautiful animals running around together in a circle.

"This is sort of like watching the Olympics must be like," I told Pnin, "if I understood what was going on in the Olympics, which I don't usually." Relatedly, I am not fans of any actual human athletes on Facebook, but I am fans of some conformation goldens. Hm.

Even better news: this year's Best of Breed winner for the goldens is GCh Sweetlea's Follow Me ("Jacques")! Particularly exciting because his great-grandfather, Wyncall's Rootin' Tootin' (R.T.) was my first golden retriever Sasha's father. Looking back at K9data, R.T. was pointed, which means he did well in the conformation ring, but he wasn't necessarily a superstar or a famous stud that shows up in lots of lines. So it's all the more remarkable that a descendant of his would wind up winning Westminster. Well, I always knew that Sasha had something special. There's a connection between Jacques and little Willow, too: R.T.'s father/Sasha's grandfather Cowboy is also seven generations back in Willow's pedigree. So, yay for Jacques!