We won the CRUFTS, but the vet, because of the sluggish and indolent pimple, does not allow us to fly to the ring of honor. We don't know what to do, so when in doubt, let's go to the bar! We order three beers and toast to victory with some English breeder friends, when suddenly, all out of breath, the secretary (I think) of the English Kennel Club arrives and between one sigh and another tells us that there is a "subversive" press against to the Kennel Club that preaches the elimination of our breed (as well as that of all brachycephalics) that is looking for us. He asks us to leave because they are looking for us everywhere and they want to do a trick interview. We look at her a little amazed, but as always, when we are in a foreign land and we don't know the dynamics well, we immediately accept her advice. We leave our beers virtually untouched, take Koby and walk the ten steps that separate us from the hotel. We don't quite understand the reason for all that excitement, after all if they had found us we would have been able to get away with an elegant "no comment", and finish our beers but so be it.

Once we arrive at the hotel, Koby lies down, finally relaxed, on the bed and we try to wet our lips again, going down to the hotel bar. We order three more beers and sit on the sofas, thinking that the time has come to rest a bit too. Nothing to do, an Italian friend contacts me and tells me that the secretary is looking for me everywhere because she has something very important to tell me urgently. We look at each other in dismay and once again let go of our unattainable pints and retrace the ten steps. Inside the NEC we meet the secretary, now calmer, who tells us that we must have a press conference, with the official press, in which we have to explain very well that Koby has all the existing and possible health tests, passed very well (remember that even the his hip dysplasia is zero!) and that the reason why he did not pass the check is not a problem of breed, but a problem of that day, localized on the coat and minor. He takes us to a large room full of journalists. There are also two vets. Well… easy to have a press conference with my English "the dog is on the table", what's up? Fortunately, there is my, once patient husband, but who I am now almost certain has as his only desire to give me a head, who has lived for many years in London and who can help me; but the undertaking remains daring because, if it is true that he speaks English as well as Italian, it is also true that he knows, perhaps, that dogs have two ears and four legs.

IT'S OK! We are ready! Brancaleone army skilled and enlisted. We manage somehow, we show all Koby's documents and the English vets are amazed and give us a lot of compliments, even if they are thrilled that in Italy, to get the diamond medal, the club does not perform any test for BAOS, except for a certificate from the treating veterinarian, of exemption from stenosis of the nostrils. We show our trachea x-rays, but we must say that it is our personal initiative and that only we do them to all our reproducers.

After the press conference, greetings and kisses.

It is evening, we do not eat and practically do not drink from the morning, we go to gobble a hamburger and perhaps to drink our well-deserved beer. We are empty, we no longer have an ounce of energy. I have nearly 500 messages to read, but I can't.

I want to go back to my room and sleep hugging the CRUFTS 2020 winner

THE END

March 17, 2020