Sports blogging is not my first passion. I could quit sports forever if someone offered me a full-time job petting dogs. In a perfect world, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff would greenlight my idea for Dog Nation, and I’d fill my days blogging about fluffy tails and filming on location at no-kill shelters.
VIDEO: The Star Wars/Star Trek Dog Costume Contest At The Brooklyn Mutt Show
A dog show with a Star Wars/Star Trek contest? Yes, please! Matt Ufford traded in his sports credentials for a day with sci-fi canines.
In the meantime, I’m happy enough talking about sports while shoehorning dogs into the conversation wherever possible, like my breakdown of dog football, my Westminster Dog Show petting challenge, and -- as documented in the new video below -- my visit to the Brooklyn Mutt Show, where I judged a Star Wars/Star Trek dog costume competition.
The Brooklyn Mutt Show was founded in 2010 as a light-hearted response to the more serious shows limited to purebred dogs. Held in the Brooklyn Lyceum, a bath house-turned-art space at the edge of the dog-crazy Park Slope neighborhood, the Mutt Show’s various contests include Best Tail, Best Beard, Most Like Owner, and Best Kisser, and the entry fees benefit animal-friendly charities: Sean Casey Animal Rescue and the Wild Bird Fund.
But let’s get to the crux of the matter: dogs in Star Wars and Star Trek costumes. Among the entrants: two different wire-haired mutts dressed as Yoda, a James T. Kirk golden retriever (with a working communicator and a matching, geeky owner), a pit bull Uhura, and -- incomprehensibly -- a skinny little shorthair dressed as the corpse of Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. I can’t explain the reasoning, but I’m sure David Lynch approves.
I liked the James T. Kirk golden best, but judging is a collaborative process, and my vote only carried so far. In the end, I relented at the judges’ table in order to get back to my top priority: petting the contestants. Next stop: editor of Dog Nation!
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