Little Sister

To the uninitiated, a dog is merely an animal big enough to chase a cat. But chosen as the U.S.'s best dog last week was a tiny, 9 1/2in. bit of ebony fluff that would make any kitten feel like a tiger. The winner at the Westminster Kennel Club show at Madison Square Garden: Ch. Cappoquin Little Sister, a toy poodle who rode triumphantly away from the rubber-sheeted arena in her own silver-plated trophy bowl.

Called "Sister" for short, the new champion is an aristocratic three-year-old whose bouffant hairdo is kept in place by a strategically located rubber band. At her kennel in Mahopac, N.Y., Sister is kept saturated in baby oil and hooded in Pliofilm. Her life is sunless and funless. Her diet features wheat germ and chopped beef, her home is carefully air-conditioned, and she gets ultraviolet light treatments. But sunshine? Never. Twice a day Sister exercises in an "outdoor" run --shingle-roofed, walled with Plexiglas and floored with specially selected gravel. Only when she is being prepared for show is Sister permitted the luxury of a bath--in liquid Lux detergent. Scratching is forbidden: it might damage her coat. Panting is frowned upon: it might destroy her air of "distinction and dignity."

Last week Sister was stacked up against 2,547 other no-pants dogs at the Westminster. Awaiting her turn, she sat patiently in a tiny cell in the Garden basement. In the ring, she coolly outperformed 70 members of her own breed and a batch of other dogs classed in the "toy group'': Chihuahuas, affenpinschers. Mal tese, Italian greyhounds, griffons, etc.

In the final judging for best in show, Sister was matched against a bigger, white miniature poodle, a Scottish terrier, a parti-colored cocker, a dachshund and a boxer. After frequent consultations with his wristwatch. as if timing his decisions to television, Judge Joseph E. Redden, himself a terrier fancier, pointed to Sister. Said Redden: "It resolved itself into a choice of the two poodles. There was remarkably little difference in their breed characteristics. In my opinion, the toy was better in the head, and that was the deciding factor."

The show over. Sister was paraded solemnly before TV cameras and bundled into her cage for the trip back to Mahopac. She was a worthy winner -- but U.S. dogs were certainly going to take a frightful ribbing from U.S. cats.

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