said Aunt Peg. “I’m sure there will be a service in Miss Ellie’s honor and I wouldn’t want to miss it.” She and I were back in our hotel room. Ninety minutes had passed since Ken Dolby’s announcement had cast a pall over the remainder of the dog show. The Sporting Group began as soon as Mr. Dolby left the ring but almost nobody appeared to be watching the dogs compete for the coveted prize. Instead, most people were standing in small clusters talking among themselves Aunt Peg had left Bertie and me and gone to see what she could find out. She’d returned fifteen minutes later looking grim, and unfortunately none the wiser. Everyone she’d spoken to was as shocked by the dire news as we were. But no one had had any further details to share. The Toy Group followed the Sporting dogs and we all made a pretense of directing our attention back to the ring. Non-Sporting was after that. When the Poodles were defeated in both groups and thereby eliminated from further competition, we decided we’d seen enough.
