My Life Story Continued...
Anyway, I digress. When I was about a year old, the nice red haired lady who drove me to Manhattan stopped by—her name is Diane by the way, and told me that I was extremely handsome (which I already knew) and that lots of other people would want to see me and perhaps give me awards and so forth. This seemed like a good idea, so periodically I would go visit her and her Labrador retrievers (www.casbarlabs.com) in a place called New Jersey and we would all pile into a van and go to these events called dog shows. The nice red haired lady also introduced me to my aunt, a very pretty black and tan bloodhound called Barbie, with whom I was able to have a lot of fun. We are a really good looking family, if I do say so myself. And even though I am also a black and tan bloodhound, my tan is mostly a deep, rich red, so it is especially gratifying that my human’s hair is red as is the show lady’s. I think it is a most attractive color and I am sure they arranged this to please me. And what do you know, Labor Day 2005, I was acknowledged by humans as a champion dog—I always knew this, but I accept that other species can be a bit slow on the uptake. Well, this whole championship thing created quite a stir and I was given an entire roast chicken to eat and told that I would be shown at a New York show called Westminster 2006. Now, don’t misunderstand me this whole show dog thing is a pretty good gig—anything that produces whole roast chickens is nothing to be sneered at--- but the admiration is kind of limited to very small numbers of folks. And of course showing means that I do have to spend time with a very nice woman named Melodie (dark hair, alas, although I have suggested to her that red would be a much more attractive color for her) who bathes and pampers me in her spa (www.peachis.com), which however pleasurable, cuts down on my Park time. However, this Fall I found something REALLY exciting to do…
Yes, I am writing and starring in a children’s book! It is called “Wimsey’s Guide to New York” and it features me as a bloodhound about town showing off my favorite city. My companions in this endeavor are two humans, Elizabeth and Jay, and, of course, both are red headed in honor of me. Elizabeth escorts me to various locations that would be of interest to young tourists and Jay photographs me as I explain the site to the readers. Elizabeth writes down what I have to say and puts it into her computer and we review the text together (although I am tall enough to see the computer screen, I like to stand on her lap so I don’t miss a word). Elizabeth says she wrangles me, but I think I wrangle her. Working on the book is such a lot of fun and I get to meet so many new people who stop by our shoots to say hello, take their own pictures and of course, admire me. My shoot in Grand Central Station was even filmed for CBS News when they did a story about me going to Westminster. Jay is a heck of a fellow and I always like to follow him around and look into his camera. He does tend to complain a bit when some of my drool (it helps bring up the intensity of the scent when I am on the trail of something, which is pretty much all the time) gets on his lens, but I know this is only because it ruined an exceptionally beautiful shot of me. And Jay is not the only media professional who finds me alluring. I have also been filmed as part of Anna Pizzaro’s upcoming new documentary on Urban Pets. Can’t wait to see how that turns out sometime next year. (If you see it just remember that when Elizabeth was being interviewed I was amusing myself by gnawing on her TV table! It made a nice change from my rawhides).
Well, that’s my life so far. Gotta get back to work! My public awaits.
Wimsey
PS: I am also known as His Houndship or The Great Hound, which as the largest of the scent hounds, I like to believe this is true both literally and figuratively.