Honorable And Mentioned

I feel a responsibility to explain why I still dress my dog in costume even once a year and how I went about it. Then I went down a bad rabbit hole on the internet and I feel a stubborn refusal to explain myself to anyone about anything.

The short version is that we worked hard to make this costume as comfortable as possible for Ed. He didn't love wearing it but he was comfortable enough to pee and bark and take treats in it. I feel ok about my decision.

Were you to have seen his appearance on stage, though, you might not have believed all the work we did. I shielded him slightly from the audience, walked over to the emcee and borrowed her mic to announce, "And now, whether you want her or not.......HEDWIG!"

The crowd roared!

I carried him downstage center and offered him a piece of cheese.

No thank you.

I walked away from him thinking he might get up.

No thank you.

I offered him more cheese.

No, he replied turning just his head around to give me a look over his shoulder.

I called him and knelt down and patted my knees and....

Nothing.

The audience laughed.

I laughed harder.

It all took maybe 30 seconds and then I lifted him up, toured him past the judges, and left the stage.

He was happy to be down on the ground again where he was perfectly able to walk and pee and bark and eat some cheese.

We didn't win one of the big three prizes. We did get an honorable mention. I think he's had one of those three out of his four years entering. We were, I think, a cult favorite. Several fans of the Broadway show stopped us and asked for photos. We had a good time, cheese equals a good time, right?


Photo credits (in order): Amy Frankel at Gothamist, Fort Greene Focus, Mark Allen Berube.