Every third week of October or thereabouts the Samoyed Club of America, the national breed club for fanciers of purebred Samoyed dogs, conducts its annual specialty show. A specialty show is a dog show in which dogs of only one breed are entered. The national specialty show is always a wonderful event, a great opportunity to meet breeders of Samoyeds, lovers of Samoyeds, and great dogs from all over the country.
This year’s specialty show was to have been held in Biloxi.
Clearly that’s in question now. The show date is just 54 days away and, frankly, I think that the hard-hit Mississippi Gulf Coast will be hard put to get the full-time residents taken care of, housed, and fed then let alone be prepared for a dog show, tourists, and a bunch of dogs. The host club has been preparing for this show for five years and it’s just a crying shame.
In the total scheme of things a Samoyed specialty show is pretty small potatoes but this tiny thing does provide a frame of reference for examining the mess that the area is in right now. The local ABC affiliate, WLOX has some great references for assessing the state of things in the Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula area including a town-by-town status of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, extensive video of the damage, interviews with locals, and a host of other features.
The specialty was to have been held at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center which is (or was?) right on the beach. There’s no specific information on the convention center but the center was quite close to Keesler Air Force Base and the base was hit hard:
WASHINGTON Widespread flooding and high winds from Hurricane Katrina damaged Keesler Air Force Base and Camp Shelby in Mississippi.
Keesler suffered extensive damage to base housing, training facilities and industrial areas from raging flood waters that were up to four feet deep.
There are no injuries reported at the Biloxi base.
Here’s the statement from the base web site:
Keesler Air Force base has survived a direct hit by a Hurricane Katrina a Category 4 hurricane. Initial assessment shows extensive damage to our industrial and housing areas. We are deploying assessment crews and are in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and with commanders of many military bases who have offered assistance. The damage is severe enough that we are unable to leave our shelters until Thursday at the earliest in order to assure our recovery teams have cleared debris and made it safe for us and our families to return home. Brigadier General Lord and your leadership promises to keep you apprised of the progress of our recovery teams and release you to go home and assess your own damage as soon as it is safe for your family to travel. All pets at the Keesler pet shelter are in good health and weathered this extremely dangerous storm safely. We are doing everything within our power to clear the way and provide the best immediate and long term assistance to help each one of us in order to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Brigadier General Lord wants you to know we are not alone and will do everything we can to keep you safe and get you home as soon as possible. Please be patient. We all need to pull together and help us all make it through this difficult time safely.
As I wrote earlier a dog show isn’t much in the face of a catastrophe of this enormity. But it’s one more domino, one more event that will undoubtedly be moved or cancelled, another economic blow to this stricken community.
I love Samoyeds — but would like to say, maybe people in the SCA could think of Biloxi (as you do when you say “another economic blow to this stricken community”) and try to donate money for the people there.
I agree, jayann. One of my key points in putting up this post was to ensure that the Mississippi Gulf Coast wasn’t forgotten in the rush of sympathy for New Orleans.
It’s my understanding that five all-breed shows, connected to four clubs in southeastern Louisiana, were scheduled for next weekend in Biloxi. Obviously they’re not going to come off; a friend in the fancy tells me that shows this weekend in Monroe, in the opposite end of the state from New Orleans, had to be canceled because there aren’t any hotel rooms for 400 miles or so.
Still, at least nothing happened during a show. That would be just a bit too horrible to contemplate.
Dave, thank you.
We’re many months post Katrina, but I happened upon this article and felt compelled to respond. The Samoyed Club relocated its National Specialty to Owensboro, KY, thanks to extraordinary efforts of the all-volunteer show committee and the graciousness of the folks in KY. This was no small feat, given the Co-chairs of the show were not heard from for days and without power for weeks. Also, the Samoyed National is the eighth largest National Specialty of all AKC breed specialties.
The folks and their animals in Biloxi and Katrina’s path were not forgotten, however. At that Specialty in Kentucky, the Board of the Samoyed Club of America voted to donate $10,000 to the American Kennel Club – Companion Animal Recovery (AKC-CAR) program with 75% earmarked for St. Francis Sanctuary in Tylertown, MS. The board also organized a matching program where by members could donate to any one of five relief agencies for humans or pets and SCA matched their contributions dollar for dollar with the proceeds from the 2005 specialty. This matching effort brought approximately $17,000 into various agencies for further Katrina relief this spring (2006).
I personally couldn’t be more proud of my fellow Samoyed owners and fanciers.