For Esme - With Love and Milk Bones

Vaska's "aunt" Esme, seen above beating the living bejabbers out of him shortly before he left Florida to come live here, had rather a good day at Westminster Monday:

61     GCH Kengalis Spirits R Zoomin' Fm JC
Breed: Rhodesian Ridgeback
Sex: Bitch
AKC: HP 30888105
Date of Birth: July 14, 2008
Breeder: Frank Murphy & Rhanda Glenn & Kathryn Vande Logt
Sire: Ch Adili's American Idol
Dam: Ch Wall St Zoom Zoom Zoom Of FM
Owner: Ginny Merchant & George Brown

There were far too many ridgebacks entered for my comfort -- 56, far and away the most numerous breed at the show. I have had ridgebacks since 1986 and used to have to explain them to nearly everyone we met. Now it's rare that people don't recognize them straight off. I hate seeing any breed become popular for fear that it will go into cookie-cutter sameness at one end of the breeding continuum and genetic chaos at the other end.

But it's nice to know that other people think Esme is a pretty girl. There were only five merit awards handed out, so it is significant, and she is listed first.

At the time that top picture was taken, Ginny told me that Esme had to regularly be shooed out of the whelping box because she was so fascinated with the puppies that she wanted to be with them all the time. This is a good thing, since she will have a chance now to create some of her own.

And they will all be lovely examples of the breed, though none of them will be nearly as cute as her former kennel mate who, you may note, is no longer living in Florida.

This is rather a long video, but if you skip to the end, Esme and Ginny appear at the one-minute (remaining) mark.