Best in Show

There was a small, newly improvised dog pen just beyond the lattice-covered and grape-vine bedecked patio off the sun porch, on a short grassy area between the house and the start of the pier out into Newport Harbor.

A dog looking somewhat like a Chinese Crested was bounding around the pen and yapping its silly little head off.

With little fanfare, the young man lifted Da Mei Yang over the lip of the pen, and the champion stud bounded out of his arms and into the enclosure. There was little doubt that the immaculately groomed Chinese Crested knew exactly why he was there.

As Da Mei Yang stood solidly in the middle of the pen and stared down Sandy’s pooch, Sandy saddled up close behind the dog groomer. The sounds from Sandy’s dog turned from ridiculous but noisy yapping to uncertain yipping to whining, and its head descended lower and lower as Da Mei Yang stood there, majestically, staring the other dog down.