The Beagle Wins! The Beagle Wins!

Oh, yes! Despite my doom and gloom prediction yesterday, the judge sided with the (extremely loud!) crowd and Uno the Beagle is your Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Champion! This makes him the President of Dogs, I think, just like Miss America is the President of Women.

Uno beat out a couple other solid dogs in the final, including a poodle that has won something like 750,000 Best in Shows. (There was also a pretty cute Akita who was my second choice. The Weimaraner also ran more graceful than any animal I’ve ever seen.) Uno howled after his victory and celebrated as if he knew he had won; the crowd went bananas. You think the Knicks fired Isiah the Garden was so loud.

The longtime announcer for the dog show on USA, David Frei, told the Associated Press this is going to be the most popular dog show champion in a while. (And 2006 champ Rufus the Colored Bull Terrier made two appearances at the Kennel Club of Philadelphia’s show last year.) “If he wins best in show, I’ll rent him an apartment in New York City because I’ll be traveling with him all year, so many people will want to see him,” Frei said. “If he won, it would be the greatest thing for our show.”

Ooh, do I sense some sort of mainstreaming of Westminster? Will angry poodle owners stage a protest? Whatever. The cute beagle won. Yay!

By the way, until Uno won the best line of the night was the judge for the Working Group, who the camera picked up saying, “Move that bitch up.” This needs to be in a dance remix, STAT.

Update: Aww, and look at this photo!

Hail, Snoopy! Beagle Wins Westminster [AP/Google]
Yesterday: Cute Doggies Take Over Dog Show