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It's hard to believe that it's been five years since goodnewsforpets first crackled in the electric vapor. Holy Plasma Screen! It's older than my computer. Imagine. My "new" ThinkPad is old enough to be embedded with the dusty exhaust of Manhattan's electrostatic air. Not only is my laptop becoming prehistoric, it's more than two years old, so is everything else, or so it seems. NOT! This great site has become more than just a pit stop on the information highway. It seems to me to be as vital, as vigorous, and even more useful than before. It is a destination rather than a mere stop along the way.
When you need backgrounders and research content about dogs, cats, and all the aspects of that involvement this is the place to find it. We've got pet news, columns, press releases, announcements and a lot that the dog and cat writer needs for work. It's also for curious and involved pet owners. Needless to say, I am happy to be a part of it all.
I wish I had been in from the beginning, as was Steve Dale, but I shouldn't complain. Thanks to him I met Lea-Ann Germinder, whose brainchild this was, and who invited me to participate with a column. I signed on in the autumn of 2001 thanks to my good friend, Steve. Sadly enough, fate has chiseled into my brain the memory of writing my first column because it came shortly after the attack on the World Trade Towers, which happened a little over a mile from where I lived and seemed as if it were just outside my terrace. The column was about that horror in relation to the dogs in my neighborhood fading out of sight for a while. Here is a brief quote from that column titled, "Paw Prints in the Dust":
One of my pleasures each morning is watching my neighbors from the terrace of my little Greenwich Village apartment as they give their dogs their morning stroll. I stand near the ledge, sip coffee and sometimes talk to a friend on my cordless phone. I live on Charles Street just two blocks up from the Hudson River and about two miles north of the financial district. If Paris is the City of Lights certainly, New York is the City of Dogs. Perhaps a million of them live here. Across the street are two Welsh Terriers owned by a very successful painter and next door to her is a woman with two majestic white Standard Poodles. Next door to my building is a young Boxer, as frisky as a teenager full of himself. Dogs are everywhere up and down the block, around the corner and on every street. But in an instant last Tuesday morning the dogs and their owners disappeared along with the World Trade Towers. Everyone seemed to go home and they took their dogs with them. The street poles and fire hydrants went un-serviced…………
………………………Anyway, traffic is now flowing south in Manhattan again, at least as far as Canal Street, and the Village came alive this Sunday afternoon. People were in the restaurants and sidewalk cafes. But the best sign of renewal was the sight of people walking their dogs again. But you know what? Those dogs are getting a lot more attention than usual. I see many people hugging them, talking to them, and looking very proud. There are several hundred rescue dogs working deep inside "The Hole" and everyone knows this, especially the dog owners. Nobody is working harder than the rescue dogs. Everyone is proud of them.
As for everyone else here in Manhattan, we are still standing and holding our place and I feel very close to Americans everywhere tonight. We are connected. We really are one people, one family.
Among my many pleasures as a dog and cat writer is anticipating the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. February is when it happens. Some of my friends sit in our favorite coffee shop and look out the windows of the French doors in the late afternoon and try to figure out how much more daylight we have each day as we hope for spring. Others look forward to spring training in Florida starting up getting the next baseball season going. As I said, for me, the anticipated pleasure is the coming of Westminster and all the satellite events surrounding it. From my column, "A Midwinter Night's Dream," which appeared in goodnewsforpets in 2003? ……………Like the answer to a prayer, Westminster turned a midwinter night's dream into an exciting reality. There were roars and high-pitched yowls booming from Madison Square Garden that drowned out the subway running underneath. It was a canine rock concert. In 30 years, I only missed the Westminster Week one time and that was because they locked the door to my hospital room. What would life be like without the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Kentucky Derby or the Westminster Dog Show? These cherished sporting events represent the cream of American pop culture and are enjoyed everywhere. In the world of dogs, Westminster is like playing the Palace; it is the big time. These are dogs on Broadway. Although this, the most glamorous benched dog show in the world, takes up two days and two nights, there were so many things to see and do before those 2500+ beauties woofed and wagged their way into the record books. Most importantly, there were ten National (or Regional Specialty shows one or two days before the Westminster show. Like planets around the sun, some were held at the Meadowlands in New Jersey (across the river and close to Manhattan) and in a few hotels near Madison Square Garden. These are important dog shows with only one breed competing that are sponsored by their national parent club. For some, winning a national specialty is far more satisfying than winning at Westminster, unless of course we're talking about Best In Show at the Garden. The specialty shows in and around Manhattan just before Westminster were for the Shiba Inu, Papillon, Petite Basset Griffon Vendeen (PBGV), American Chinese Crested, Bulldog, English Setter, Gordon Setter, Pekingese and the Yorkshire Terrier.[for the year 2003] And oh my, there were the parties and formal evening events. The Westminster Week, which usually begins on Friday and wraps up at the Dog Fanciers Luncheon in Sardi's the following Wednesday, requires suitcases jammed with tuxedos, shimmering gowns, expensive shoes, jewelry, dark suits and dressy dresses. If you cannot get an invitation to one of the hot events then you make your own party, and believe me, there were plenty of those in the hotel rooms spilling out into the hallways, nightclubs, restaurants and even in the Broadway theatres. The canine corporate world was well represented at their own events days before the show. Pedigree, Nature's Recipe, Iams and Science Diet dog food (among others) all had highly touted evening affairs, the invitations to which were hard to come by. There were fabulous parties at Tavern-on-The Green, a sumptuous restaurant on the edge of Central Park (in thirty years I have yet to be invited to that one)…………… But, that's show biz. The big event this year is the Dog Writers Association of America's 70th Anniversary annual writing competition awards banquet taking place on the Sunday evening before the dog show at the Garden. And then the next day, the National Anthem is played at eight am in Madison Square Garden, ushering in the Westminster Kennel Club's 129th Annual Dog Show, for a two-day canine frappe. For me the best social event happens on Friday night. I'm talking about the Hill's Science Diet Winners Circle Awards Dinner, black tie and gowns, and by special invitation only. I guess I like it best because I am its Master of Ceremonies and enjoy being the ringmaster, making it all work, like a traffic cop. The best part is looking out at the splendid audience from the lectern, all very active, very important dog show people. This, their eighteenth annual dinner, will be another rarified event because it takes place in a sweet ballroom at the jazzy Marriott Marquis Hotel, in the heart of Broadway. It will be jammed to capacity with the crème de la crème of the dog show world, you know, the people who develop the great dogs and then show them at the Garden after a tough year of campaigning them around the country. The top ten dogs of the year and their owners, handlers and veterinarians are paid tribute to with videotapes, music and awards. We always expect the next Westminster winner to be one of the honored ten. It is a reasonable expectation because these winners will have defeated more competitors in 2004 than all others in hundreds of dog shows. What a treat, and a very difficult ticket to come by. I believe that the only reason I get to go is because I MC the affair. It's the one time of the year I get to wear my tuxedo. Keep your fingers crossed that it still fits. HAPPY FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, GOODNEWSFORPETS, AND CONGRATULATIONS LEA-ANN FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN. Friday, February 11th, 2005 – Eighteenth Annual Hill's Science Diet Winners Circle Awards. Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York City. MC will be yours truly, Mordecai Siegal. Sunday, February 13th, 2005 – 70th Anniversary dinner of the Dog Writers Association of America, Writing Competition Awards. Southgate Towers Hotel, New York City. Monday, Tuesday, February 14 & 15th, 2005 – 129th Annual Dog Show of the Westminster Kennel Club. Madison Square Garden, New York City. Mordecai Siegal's newest book is, "The Cat Fanciers' Association COMPLETE CAT BOOK. The Official Publication of the CFA," published by HarperCollins. It is a reference work comparable to the American Kennel Club Complete Dog Book. His most durable books are "Good Dog, Bad Dog (Henry Holt)," "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things (Little, Brown)," the 10th Anniversary Revised Edition of "I Just Got A Puppy. What Do I Do? (Simon & Schuster)," "The Cornell Book of Cats, Second Edition (Villard)," "The Davis Book of Dogs (HarperCollins)," "The Davis Book of Horses (HarperCollins)." He is President Emeritus of the Dog Writers Association of America and a founding member of The Cat Writers' Association. |
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Goodnewsforpets.com is produced by Germinder & Associates, Inc., a public relations and marketing communications firm. For editorial and sponsorships, contact Lea-Ann Germinder, APR. ©
Germinder & Associates, Inc.
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SIEGAL: Visit Mordecai Siegal through his web site at: www.mordecai.com |
 The Cat Fanciers' Association Complete Cat Book Order the book at Amazon.com |
