Pet show

We get free tickets for a pet show at the local convention center. 'Lucy would like to see cats and dogs.' we think, and invite her to come along. There is a small ring where dogs are being walked around, and being felt up by a fellow with his tie tucked affectedly in between his second and third buttons.

My wife says they look Japanese, that she can tell.

"The dogs," I ask. Eunjoo has a habit of keeping context to herself. "No, the people. It's the way they dress."

"Everyone?"

"In the ring."

"The judge?"

"The people presenting the dogs."

"I don't see it." I say, as a woman comes past.

"She's Korean. Those guys." She finally points to two of the guys with dogs. "It's hard to tell Korean from Chinese, but you can usually tell who is Japanese."

We are suddenly in one of these conversations where my wife makes unverifiable assumptions based on stereotypes and then congratulates herself on her acuity. I know better than to suggest that she might be wrong. "It's easy to tell the men from the women, too." I say.

"Sometimes men wear dresses." says Lucy.

"Sometimes dogs do too." I say, pointing to a dog walking by in what can only be called an evening gown.

A pet show is for 'pet people'. There is a distinction it seems: there are people that raise pets, living with them and loving them, and then there are people for whom pets are a very much more a life focus. The latter are 'pet people' or 'dog people' or 'cat people' or what have you. The extents, financial and otherwise, to which some pet people go to treat their pets as family members is often surprising to other people. A pet show is clearly aimed at pet people.

Apart from the small dog show ring, the whole exhibition center is filled with booths selling pet products and apparel. I knew, I'd seen it, that there is a market for doggie jackets and doggie buggies. But I did not know how fancy some of this stuff can get. There is dog active-wear, dog hair-products (all organic!), motorised pet cars, pet art machines (like a scanner that the pet walks on and makes pictures), slow-cooked dog food, organic dog-food vegetarian dog treats....

I didn't know dogs were so health conscious. And actually, it strikes me that perhaps they are not. Setting aside the question of whether a vegetarian diet is even healthy for a dog or cat, should we impose it on them? You can choose to be vegetarian or to eat healthier, but nobody wants you to try to impose it on them. Might my dog not resent it. Maybe if I could ask him my dog would say he would rather live to the age of 11 eating beef flavoured kibble than to the age of 13 eating carrot flavoured kibble.

I think a lot of dogs would choose gravy on their kibble and the occasional bit of steak gristle. And I think some might go further. I think the tobacco companies are missing a big market here. Pet people want to give their pets all the luxuries that they themselves enjoy. But I didn't see any booths selling doggie cigarettes? Not a single bottle of doggie schnapps. People have been getting their cats high on cat-nip for years. But nothing for dogs. Maybe I just went to the wrong pet-show.