Pet Shows

Pets are an odd thing. Humans, Americans especially, spend billions of dollars each year in the care and pursuit of happiness for their pet. Certain pets inspire such fervor that their owners are drawn to gather into groups or clubs. Dogs especially inspire such rabid expressions of adoration with no pun or negative associations intended. Companion animals have, since antiquity, been venerated and extolled and have been included in works of art, literature and music since time out of mind the culmination of which we find in modern pet shows.

Aside from watching various kennel club shows on television and one foggy memory of actually attending one as a child I had little knowledge or experience with these shows. That is, up until we got our first skunk. Cecil, named after C.C. Deville of the 80's group Poison, much to my fiance's chagrin, was brought home at the tender age of five weeks. We loved him to distraction and doted on him day and night. As ever I did much research to ascertain the best way to bring up a baby skunk and followed it to the letter admonishing my fiance for not following "the rules" the entire time. I followed the diet instructions faithfully and was religious about handling him and gentling him to a fault. And so we progressed.

Cecil is what is known in skunk circles as a "Classic Black and White" meaning he looks like what a skunk is supposed to look like. Prior to owning a skunk I, nor my fiance, had any idea of the colors and variations skunks could come in but were pleasantly surprised to find those variations infinite. Cecil was precocious and spunky and prone to puffing his tail in play with our old, and much put upon dog. I heard one person describe his particular tail formation in full puff as "starburst" in its display. We thought him a gorgeous animal but assumed it was because he was ours and we his.

In my research I found that there was to be a skunk show held in Tampa that year. Who knew such things occurred? I was hesitant at first to mention it to my fiance afraid he would write such things off as a frivolous, ludicrous expense but to my surprise and delight he was more excited than me to attend. Preparations were made and so we traveled to the show. Friday when we first arrived was designated for socializing among the skunk owners and a general orientation of events. We found the group, many of whom had been meeting for years, to be extremely friendly and welcoming. They were full of the information and helpful tips my fiance and I had been starving for. In short, they were wonderful.

We attended the show the next day with much trepidation as we were "newbies" to displaying our skunk for the judgment of others. We had considered not entering him into the show at all figuring we were out of our depth among hardcore skunk people. They assured us it was an informal affair and encouraged us to participate which we did. I say we but I quickly established myself as official picture taker and forced my fiance to show Cecil at the table in various categories.

Throughout the day people came up to us and told us how wonderful Cecil was. How handsome, how friendly, how personable he was. My fiance was bashful at the tables, not knowing what he was doing and merely imitated the actions of the persons to his right and left. Cecil, it seemed, knew what it all was about and set to "strutting his stuff" for all to behold. The heavy praise of our then five month old skunk continued to heap upon heap. We assumed everyone was just being nice and kind to us as we were new. That was until the awards began to be handed out.

My fiance had actually suggested we head back to our room before the awards as it had been a longer day than expected and we did not expect as newbies with such a humble skunk to be participating in the awards ceremony at all. How wrong we were. Cecil began to receive ribbon after ribbon, two of which were Best in Show in different categories. My fiance and I were appropriately floored and flabbergasted. I had difficulty bearing up under my pride and was amazed to find myself tearing up. The final award was the Grand National Champion, the award of all awards. When Cecil came in second place Grand National Champion it was all I could do not to weep and act a fool.

They forced me to go up with my fiance to accept the blown glass trophy that Cecil won and the three of us took a picture with said trophy. I look more than a little ridiculous in that picture as I pulled my face in to hold back the tears. My fiance couldn't look more proud and delighted. Cecil merely looked as if all was as it should be and I daresay he knew better than us the entire day.