Today was the day I’ve always dreamed of, given that it was all about me.
At noon, my master, mistress and I boarded a San Antonio River barge along with the rest of the Humane Society's doggy court, and headed to the coronation site. Along the riverside, people gasped and waved at our finery. Oh--I forget to say that just after we got on the boat the Mistress of the Grrrobes gave each of us our velvet gowns. Mine was hot pink with a stand up collar. It was edged with faux ermine and sewn with shiny images of "chew toys."
Now I always try to shake off any kind of clothing my mistress puts on me. This time I didn’t. It was quite comfortable, but even if it hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have. As Mary’s mother used to ask, “What price beauty?”
When we got to the patio aside the Grand Hyatt Hotel, our subjects were seated in front of a stage. Each of the six members of the court was called up individually and the master of ceremonies, C.J. Cruz of 94.1 KTFM Radio, read our biography. Of course mine told of my rescue from the streets of Austin and that I’ve be come a writer since moving into a household of writers. She even gave the address of my blog.
My entrance was made dramatic when two of Mary and Lewis’s friends, Bruce and Jill McDougall, shot off confetti guns over my head. Since Bruce is the executive director of the San Antonio Conservation Society, which puts on A Night in Old San Antonio during Fiesta week, he knows all things festive. Other friends who came to my coronation included two WWTs—Pat Semmes and Susan Gragg; and Bonnie McCormick with her daughter Kate Lathrop and her granddaughter, Sophia. Several friends brought their doggies: Buffy Montgomery and the Jesse Fernandezes.
After it was over, Mary was interviewed by a San Antonio Express-News reporter who asked, among other things, what she thought about the Rey Feo/Rey Fido controversy. The brouhaha erupted yesterday when it was revealed in the newspaper that the Rey Feo Scholarship Committee, a group run by LULAC Council No. 2, was taking legal trademark infringement action against the Humane Society over the use of a name similar to theirs.
Virtually everyone who has written in on the E-N website has defended the Rey Fido folks, saying that in no way would people confuse the two fund-raising organizations. Who after all would confuse a human king with a dog king?
When Mary said: “It looks like the MALDEF folks have laid an egg…and unfortunately, it wasn’t a cascaron,” the reporter cracked up. A cascaron, for those of you not from San Antonio, is a confetti-filled eggshell that is cracked on someone’s head for fun.
Well, fun is what I had today, and I’m looking forward to having more of it at the Pooch Parade the Saturday after Fiesta Week, April 24. Stay tuned.
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