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Consider the Pug

Plus, our favorite dog for this evening!

by
Marc Tracy
February 14, 2012
A pug yesterday at Madison Square Garden.(Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
A pug yesterday at Madison Square Garden.(Michael Nagle/Getty Images)

Reporting from the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir paused to offer a paean to the pug. The competition, which takes place at Madison Square Garden, is the United States’ second-longest-running annual sports event after the Kentucky Derby (they haven’t played The Game every year), and, with its staid atmosphere, extreme politesse, and emphasis on good breeding, the whole thing is rather, well, not Jewish.

Yet here is Sandomir on one of those purebreds:

Pugs are the Catskills tummlers of dogs, entertainers with a penchant for emitting funny sounds as they walk or stand still. Listen closely, you hear the Borscht belt. They are not sleek like greyhounds or elegant like Afghans, but they are captivating.

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Unfortunately, the winner among pugs, that Jew among dogs, did not finish in the top four in its group, Toy, and this year’s Canaan dog winner, aptly an Israeli dog named Magnum (for the second year in a row!), did not make it out of Herding. Barring unexpected developments before tonight’s awarding of Best in Show, Tablet Magazine’s official dog will be the wirehaired dachshund who won the Hound group last night and who may be pictured below in a photograph taken by the author earlier yesterday.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.