MINI Owners’ Best Friends Impress the Judges

Style, creativity and good looks – it’s not just the hundreds of MINIs taking part in MINI TAKES THE STATES 2014 that can boast those qualities.
As the coast-to-coast rally stopped over in Wendover, Utah, several of the dogs who are accompanying MINI Motorers on the drive had the chance to show off those attributes in front of hundreds of MINI owners in a special MTTS Dog Show at Historic Wendover Airfield.

The party and dog show were held to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Best Friends Animal Society, the chosen charitable partner of MINI TAKES THE STATES 2014. To a soundtrack of “I’m Too Sexy”, around 20 dogs were paraded in fancy dress and performed tricks in front of judges, delighting the almost 750 MINI guests at the party.

Research shows that 63% of MINI owners have pets and 40% of those are dogs and that is reflected in the total number of dogs who are expected to join their owners on some or all of the epic 5,200-mile drive from San Francisco to Boston. That figure is expected to be over 100 dogs.

The judges chose Jasper, a Corgi and Border Collie cross, owned by Kat Hsueh as ‘Best In Show’ and Yorkshire Terrier Ms Maggie Mae with her owner Nancy Homer were chosen as ‘Best Match’ for their matching black and white checked outfits. The ‘Most Patriotic’ prize went to Jennifer Limon and Cooper, her Corgi and American Bulldog cross, while the ‘Best Trick’ award was presented to Sally Suchil and Jamba, who performed ballerina moves for the audience. The ‘Most Exotic’ prize was presented to Debbie Hemela and her five-year old Ridgeback called Ruby.

Best Friends will receive a $10,000 donation from MTTS registration fees and staff will be going along for the ride on MTTS 2014 in a distinctive Best Friends-wrapped MINI sharing their message to ‘Save Them All’. At three of the rally locations, weekend adoptions will be hosted by MINI dealers for the public to adopt their next best friend – these will be in Albuquerque, NM; Memphis, TN and Buffalo, NY.