Did you hear a Pekingese won “Best of Show” at Westminster last week?  Everyone on the news had something funny to say about the hairy, waddling little dog, but Banjo Man and I got a little choked up.

We have a soft spot for Pekingese.

Miss Lillie

For several years I volunteered with a regional Pekingese rescue organization, so I worked to pull Pekes from pounds, remove them from homes, find them new ones, do home checks, transport them from one home to another and foster.

My first transport was for a West Virginia Pekingese who, as an unwanted puppymill breeding machine, had been tossed in a snow bank, rescued by a couple walking nearby, nursed in an animal shelter and sent to RI to live with me while she had surgery for inguinal hernias and found a home.  She was elderly, one-eyed, dirty, frightened, smelly and obviously in pain when I met her driver in Connecticut on the last leg of her trip.  But she was sweet and docile, and so exhausted she fell asleep in the tub while I was giving her a bath.

I called her Miss Lillie, after Lillie Langtry (who came from humble beginnings and ended up in luxury as mistress to the Prince of  Wales).  The vet thought she was at least 12 years old and wouldn’t live six more months, but after her surgery and ear drops and eye drops and stomach medication and teeth cleanings and extractions, she felt pretty darn perky.  As long as she was in the same room with me, that was.

Banjo Man and I went toe-to-toe about adopting her ourselves.  I’m pretty sure we both yelled and sulked.  But I wasn’t going to put that old blind dog through the stress of adjusting to a new home and Banjo Man–realizing the old girl wasn’t going to live much longer–kindly agreed to treat her to a pampered senior lifestyle for the last months of her life.  Aside from her snoring, she was a perfect companion.

She lived for six more years.  Blind, deaf and senile at the end, she was always sweet and good-natured and grateful for her RI home.  We–and especially Banjo Man–miss her terribly.

Best of Show??  You bet.