Editorial: February 3, 2023

Like the movie of the same name that has been nominated for 11 Academy Awards, I had a similar reaction. For the last two years, I have seriously considered selling my 1966 230SL Mercedes-Benz purchased from my late dearest friend and famous dog-show photographer Joan Ludwig more than 30 years ago. Having not driven her in those two years except for an occasional Sunday spin, I let her be driven out of my driveway by her new owner. With her went lots of memories and an empty garage bay that now afforded me an unobstructed view of the wall. I saw the two bird cages built for our kitchen, several chairs and boxes of mementos left to be stored for my good friend the actress Lainie Kazan. And then there they were, like old friends not seen for years: my old wooden Croyer crates that were built for our Bloodhounds. Mr. Croyer was nice man who lived in New Jersey and made almost every wooden crate used at the dog shows. That got me thinking: Where are my other old dog-show gems? The Croyer crates were too large to fit in the stairway to the barn attic, so I climbed the attic stairs to see what I hadn't seen in a long while. The first set of crates were large, long and low oak crates that once belonged to handler Bobby Barlow. When he offered his Basset Hound crates to me for the Skye Terriers, I had them refurbished by David Shaff and used them for years. As I moved them aside to go further in this treasure chest, I thought we must have been nuts to lug these heavy crates every weekend to the dog shows. Then of course I remembered, we had the luxury to have the Foley Boys, that great group of guys who unpacked and packed and saved you a spot under the grooming tent weekend in and weekend out. In between their morning and afternoon work, they kept busy playing poker and drinking beer. As I moved further along there they were, shiny Bob McGee collapsible aluminum crates for the Skyes and Whippets, more aluminum crates from the estate of Carol Andersen, three tack boxes, one a gift from Dougie Holloway … inside the drawer was a brass blanket safety pin given to me by Bobby and Susan Heckmann Fisher, to use to pull apart in my dogs’ coat (that was in the early 1970s), another parting stick given to me by Maripi Wooldridge, a little spray bottle for use in the ring given to me by Jackie Rayner, and a brass crate name plate with Anne H. Rodgers on one side; when she retired, it was engraved on the opposite side with the name Richard L. Bauer, who worked for Annie before going out on his own. I had planned for it to spend the rest of its days in a Lucite cube so you could see both sides. I never got around to doing that, like lots of other things in my life. I just closed the drawer and light, and went down the attic steps to the barn. And I thought to myself, Everything Everywhere All At Once … but not everyone, not today. Giving up Baby Joan was more than enough.