Meet Sussex Spaniel Champion Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee. Known to his friends and family as Stump. He won the Best In Show at Westminster last night, officially making him America’s Top Dog. Isn’t he wonderful? Just look at that face. And I love the color of his coat. I need a coat this color.
In winning BIS Stump set two records. He is the first Sussex Spaniel to win BIS. He is also the oldest dog to win. Stump is 10. 70 in people years. Stump actually won his group ( Sporting Dogs ) at Westminster in 2004. Soon after that he got a very serious bacterial infection and spent 19 days in the vet hospital. He almost died. And his owner wasn’t even sure he was going to show him. He made the decision on Weds. Took him out for a walk around his driveway and decided what-the-heck. No pressure, no expectations. ‘I thought he might enjoy one more walk on the green carpet. It would be fun.’, said his handler/owner Scott Sommers. So here you have a 10 year old dog, who had retired from an already great show career, and had come back from the almost-dead, and he steps in the ring at the biggest dog show on the planet with no preparation, other than the fact that he’d been there 4 years ago. He walks on the green carpet, and wins Best of Breed. Then he walks on the green carpet again and wins Best in Group. And so he steps on the green carpet one more time, competing for Best In Show. He is competing against dogs that are 8 years younger than him, and have been training and building towards this moment for the whole year. And he wins the Whole Enchilada. He was so happy too. All the other dogs prancing and gliding around the ring. And there was Stump, happily plodding around the ring on his short little legs with his tail wagging. I swear he was thinking I don’t care if I win it’s just so fun to be here. It was wonderful to watch. And I wasn’t the only one. He was by far the crowd favorite.
The judge had no idea who he was, or how old he was. She said she picked him because ‘He’s just everything that you’d want in the breed, and I couldn’t say no to him. He is in fabulous shape.’
And just so you don’t think this has nothing at all to do with golf, one of the 6 dogs Stump was competing against to win BIS was a Scottish Deer Hound named Gayleward’s Tiger Woods.
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