Certainly the news of the passing this weekend of two old acquaintances put a damper on both Saturday and Sunday. The first call I received was about Tom Stevenson early Saturday morning. It came just moments before we received an e-mail telling us our trip to judge in Shanghai, China, had been called off. It seems the Chinese government had contracted for a car racing event in the same area as our show, where over 250,000 people for the races were expected. I stopped packing immediately, and then the phone rang to advise me about Tom's demise. After that conversation, I wondered what else would go wrong that day, and except for a few football scores I would liked to have seen reversed the rest of the day was thankfully uneventful.
As for Tom Stevenson, I truly find it hard to verbalize how fervently I admired him. His life was so full outside of the dog world that his successes within the dog world seem to have paled in comparison. But, of course, without the dog connection I never would have had the privilege of being befriended by Tom and his wonderful wife, Ann. I was certainly not an intimate of either of them nor did I frequent their very rarified circle of friends within the dog world. Nonetheless, I had been a guest in their home on multiple occasions and had dinner innumerable times with them at various shows. After Ann's untimely demise, Tom left the dog scene. While we still remained in contact, we hardly saw each other but for the SB scene if he decided to attend the show. My loss, I must say. But what more can be written about the internationally acclaimed Santa Barbara Kennel Club, which rose to even greater prominence under Tom and Ann's stewardship. It would be gilding a lily! Pat Beresford once wrote of the show as the shining "Camelot of the Pacific" and, indeed, it was just that. The accomplishments they achieved with that show are legendary, and quite frankly, I doubt it can be topped by any event anywhere or at any time in the world again. That's a pretty heavy statement to make, I know, but it's not only the physical layout there that was so spectacular, it was truly the charisma generated through the efforts of the Stevensons to which I refer.
And don't think for a moment Tom was easy to work with as the grounds were being prepared for the show. He had a "merciless eye" supervising those "out-of-town" members arriving in S.B. for a week of fun and frolic under the sun. Were these people surprised to find themselves in mufti, raking, stacking chairs and picking up every bit of trash on the grounds to ensure a perfectly spotless show grounds! At first they were. But when reinvited back, one knew what to expect. Woe to the slacker, for Mr. Stevenson was a severe taskmaster. And as severe a taskmaster as he was, he was equally as gracious a host in his home to a myriad of out-of-town visitors, club members and non-club members alike.
I would certainly be remiss not to mention what a superior judge of dog flesh both Tom and Ann were. To my mind, one of the great injustices of all time was the failure of Westminster to have invited one or the other or both to adjudicate Best in Show there. Tom was as loyal and true an individual as anyone will ever meet. It was an honor to have been associated with him in any capacity, and I feel privileged to have known him at all.
Chuck Herendeen, an all breed judge, was also a longtime acquaintance of mine who hailed from the "good-ole-boy" school. I knew his kids and wife Rosemary and always had long chats with Chuck. He loved the dog world and all dogs, and his friends will sorely miss him. That unhappy news was my late Sunday evening call!
I would call to your attention an article written by Sari Tietjen in last week's DOG NEWS subtitled "Mixed Breeds—Are They in AKC's Future?” Ostensibly written about the competitive side of dog shows and the possibility that AKC is thinking of bringing mixed breeds into certain competitive events. Really, though, what Sari has done is to ignore the fact that through CAR and its relationship with Agility events, AKC is already involved with, at the very least, mixed breeds. Many people in agility have both purebreds and mixed-bred dogs and, indeed, the dog that won agility at Crufts last year was a mixed breed dog! Of course, the British are much more advanced in their thinking, as far as I am concerned, and in their attitude towards the mixed breed population, and have gone so far as to revise their TKC Constitution to read "all dogs" and not just “purebred dogs” as does AKC's comparatively newly adopted by-laws do. Sari may have a point that this discussion should be an open one, but the way it was explained to me, this kind of talk is in such preliminary stages that there is nothing to really talk about—yet. Wonder where that leak came from? I have a pretty good idea, you betcha. Where she is totally off base is for her to expect AKC to give a breakdown of the financial outside deals it enters into. I mean, these kind of deals are always couched in non-disclosure-type language, which I'm sure Sari realizes but choose to ignore—just as she ignored how open The Kennel Club in the U.K. is about the mixed-breed dog. Well, I guess that's any writer's prerogative, but it is unlike Sari to be that one-sided. Or so I think anyways. •
