Brooklyn Lyceum’s Second Annual Mutt Show had popped up on both Time Out and in an online newsletter and appealed to me instantly. It was in Prospect Park, which I’d never been to (I know, I know!) and sounded enticingly off-the-beaten track. Surely, this event would feature strange, fantastical mutts with those adorable combined names (Labradoodle, etc) and their hipster-clad owners. An irresistible combination.
Upon arriving I saw two chic mommies pushing their kids around in elegant strollers, and realized that the event might play out a little differently. Not to be deterred, I crossed the street to meet my friend Aishlinn, and ventured in. There, I found what in retrospect of course you would find at a Park Slope-hosted mutt show: cute kids outnumbering dogs 4:1 and both species running around crazily. The event was divided into two floors. On the bottom one, pets were running amuck in a center ring, as what Aishlinn pointed out seemed to be Zumba music blared in the background.
Closer inspection of the day’s activity-list revealed that we had just in fact just wandered into the “Doggie Zumba” activity portion. Behind me, an older man with seemingly no pet in sight closed his eyes and swayed to the upbeat tunes. It was unclear how zumba-ish this event was beyond the music, but hey, I’ve never been to a class and maybe they resemble the scene below:
Having squeezed in our workout, we left to explore the offerings on the top floor. Here we were confronted by an array of different mini-jumps for the dogs, with tables set up around it featuring various doggie-offerings like this:
Many of the owners were trying to coax their dogs over the jumps, while invariably their dogs walked around the jump.
The big excitement came when one of the staffers walked in, holding an adorable little terrier that looked kind of like a guinea-pig (maybe that was its mutt breed combo). “Who is his owner?” her voice rang out. “He practically ran out of the building!” Everyone shook their heads while scanning the crowd, wondering about the miscreant owner’s identity. In a room full of dog lovers – mutt lovers, no less, all the more bleeding heart – there is no greater crime than letting your dog so far out of sight that he almost mounts an escape. A little girl came out and started scratching the dog while the staffer kept asking about who the owners was, and after a confusingly long amount of time elapsed, it came out that the girl actually was his owner. She was duly chastised before the dog was released back into her care. All’s well that ends well!
Post-Dog show (actually less of a “show”, and more of an “expo”, I suppose), we wandered up and down Fifth Avenue, browsing a few vintages shops, and capping off the adventure with some delicious baked goods at Trois Pommes (granola for me, scone for her.)
Bottom Line: while it was a cool excuse to explore a new neighborhood, I don’t think I’ll be pawing (sorry, I had to!) my way back to this one next year.
