Upstart wins pet contest

NORTH CANAAN — One of the really fun ongoing events during Railroad Days is the People’s Choice Pet Photo Contest at Canaan Valley Pet Shop. Proud owners bring pictures of their loveable creatures doing all sorts of kooky and adorable things: wearing T-shirts and sunglasses, riding a "shark" raft in a pool — well, you get the idea.

In the end, when it comes to voting, it always seems to be the lovability factor that rules.

Brian Ahern and Petra Miller were pretty surprised when a winner was Eddie, a handsome but unruly mutt of the "Heinz 57" blood line (in dog-world talk, that means he is of, ahem, uncertain parentage). His owners love the big guy, but he has a lot of "moments" as they struggle to inject some obedience into his existence.

It must have been his exuberance for life,which is expressed so perfectly by a happy, good-natured dog, that caught the eye of voters.

He was actually sitting still, next to a stuffed animal bigger than he, in the winning photo. And so Eddie was proclaimed Railroad Days 2008 Dog of the Year.

When asked what brought him to this pinnacle, Eddie was modest; not even a woof. Instead, he did his best to turn on the doggy charm during a romp-in-the-grass interview at his Church Terrace home following his victory.

Ahern adopted Eddie about two years ago. He was the only puppy at the time at the SPCA in Hyde Park, N.Y.

"They told me he was a Jack Russell. He weighs 60 pounds now."

"Pity vote," is how his frustrated owners decided Eddie won.

"The people who voted must have seen us trying to walk him down Route 44, or him walking us," Ahern said. "Yup. That was it. They felt sorry for us."

Probably not, and with a title to live up to now, that diamond-in-the-rough of a dog will just have to shine through.