Palau's First Dog Show

June 12 is Independence Day in the Philippines. There is a sizable population of Filipinos who live in Palau, mostly working in the hotels or other menial jobs. To celebrate their independence, on Sunday they held a 5K run/walk. Once again I awoke before dawn to arrive at the PCC track just after five. This was not a well publicized event outside of the Filipino community and I was one of the few non-Filipinos participating. About a half dozen CAT team guys were there plus Sarah and a handful of other expats. The Filipinos were there in force with at least 250 in attendance. The route was a true 5K from the track to the President's old office in Meyuns. It was a crowded start, but once we got going I settled into a nice rhythm. I could see Sarah ahead of me, but could never quite close the distance. One of the CAT guys finished second, Sarah finished sixth, and I finished eighth. The rest of the top finishers were all Filipinos. It was a nice race and I was happy to only have to run 5K.

That afternoon the first ever dog show was held at the baseball field. Until recently, dogs were not treated as humanely in Palau as in other civilized societies. With no animal shelter and no vet, the majority of dogs were street dogs. Palau has taken strides and has greatly reduced the street dog population. There is now an animal shelter and a vet and the public is more aware about humanely treating dogs. The natural outgrowth of the progress was to hold Palau's first dog show. I was not expecting much and intended to stop by and check it out and then head to PPR, but I ended up spending all afternoon at the dog show because it was interesting and there was a bunch of people I knew attending. I only knew a few of the dogs in the show, but I was impressed by the variety of dogs. The dogs in my neighborhood all look pretty much the same. When I say variety I don't mean breeds because I doubt there was more than a handful of pure bred dogs, but there was plenty of different types of mutts. The show itself could hardly be called a dog show when compared with competitive dog shows like Westminister. There was no primping, no preening. This was like inviting your friends who had dogs to come over and have a little contest in your backyard. They had competitions such as happiest dog, cutest puppy, most interesting ears or tail, best trick, and so on. Three dozen dogs participated, but not all of them in each category. They had more traditional categories like obedience and they even set up a small agility course. Most of the dogs had never been asked to do obedience or tricks in front of a crowd and most didn't perform all that well. The few that did looked like superstars even though the obedience and tricks were fairly pedestrian. I would have loved to have had one of my parent's dogs with me, we would have cleaned up. The winner of best in show, a part border collie named Spot, was a crowd favorite doing tricks and agility. I didn't have any expectation going into the dog show, but it turned out to be a good way to spend an afternoon.

Sunday evening I went out to dinner with a group of friends. We went to a newly opened restaurant down on M Dock. Their specialty is a Brazilian barbecue. Quality meat that has not been frozen to death is always tough to find on the island, so it was worth investigating. The restaurant is part of a recently restored hotel and the ambience is very nice and new. It hardly seems like Palau. The barbecue was fantastic and it was nice having quality beef and lamb. The company was also great and it was an enjoyable evening and the end to an eclectic day.