Puppiiiiiiiiies!!!

Alright, full disclosure here: I love dogs.

Yup, love em to death. I love my own dog, my friends dogs and I even sometimes stop on the street when I see a cute one passing by. I try to avoid using that annoying baby voice that people put on around cute animals, but hey, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

For anyone like me who is a dog-lover, this article by Bill Simmons of ESPN.com is an absolute must read. I don't mean it's pretty good, I mean my buddy wrote BS an email afterward telling him that the last time so many 18-35 year old men had cried was when Rudy sacked the quarterback.

I mention all this now because last night and tonight are the two biggest nights in the doggie calendar, The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

For two nights every year, people like me all over the world stop what they're doing and flock to New York City to watch this showcase of the planet's prettiest pups....Ok, not really.

See, apparently the show, like much of the rest of the world, has fallen upon hard times.
Doggie entries are down this year, as are ticket sales. Even PETA could only afford to send two protesters this year!

But what's up with the public's obsession over this show anyways? Is it just a gimmick, like the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest or the X Games, that comes around once a year and for the most part gets ignored for the rest? Or is there something deeper to it?

Anyone who's seen Best In Show, and I hope that's most of you, can relate to the fact that no matter how crazy or opulent the show, or the owners can get, in the end it really is about the dogs.

Maybe the answer lies in people like me. There's a reason this dog show is shown live on TV throughout the States on the USA Network, a channel dedicated, for the most part, to showing cop shows, dramas and sports and in Canada on its' sports leader, TSN.

How many people are there out there that are hardened sports fans, wouldn't cry if you stuck a nail in their big toe, drink a dozen raw eggs in the morning before the crack of dawn before spending the day on a construction site....but gush at the site of a one-year-old chocolate lab chasing a tennis ball in the park? Probably more than you think.

There's some sort of natural, instinctive response that people have to dogs. Maybe it's been ingrained in our brains throughout history, maybe it's just that people like cute things. I've actually seen studies that show people with dogs live a quantitatively happier life than those without. The bond a human can make with his pet can be as strong or stronger than any they might have with a person.

For more evidence look no further than the Michael Vick situation of two summers ago. Yes, of course what he did was illegal, deplorable, disgusting and repremandable, but the public outcry from it seemed utterly disproportional to that of the plethora of other crimes that have been committed by athletes. Ed Belfour beat up his wife, Ray Lewis was on trial for murder (of a human) and even pleaded guilty to a lower charge as part of a plea bargain, Mike Tyson did three years in jail for rape, but never had anyone seen the level of sheer shock and outcry as occurred over Vick's treatment of his pit bulls.

A recent SI Cover Story told the tale of a number of Vick's dogs and where they are now. It's amazing and somewhat inspirational to hear of the transformation so many of them have made to becoming caring, loving house-pets.

Once a year we get a chance to see man's best friend strut their stuff on the biggest stage. For all they give to us year-round, I suggest you tune in.