The pack leader and I headed up to the Farmington (Connecticut) antiques show today, as we do most years at about this time. There were lots of people there with their dogs (including a seriously handsome and well-behaved pair of schnauzers and an adorable boxer puppy), and we briefly felt guilty about not bringing Dinah or Crispin, but it was hot hot hot humid humid humid and about the time we broke down and bought overpriced (but medically necessary) Italian ices, we decided they were probably happier at home after all.

Besides the living and breathing dogs, we saw lots of dog collectibles, like these:

and

Clearly I have a weakness for terriers in general and airedales in particular. I get airdales. And who wouldn’t love an airedale on wheels? Actually, it’s probably a good thing they don’t have wheels. I can only imagine the roller derby hell speeding through my kitchen and living room if Dinah and Crispin were that mobile! And of course they’d have to have scary roller derby names, perhaps Dina-Myte and The Crispinator. And we’d have to have our identities changed and go into hiding.

Here’s the thing I don’t get, though. Collectibles. Collecting things. Ask the pack leader, who has filled much of the house with antique fly fishing rods. They’re lovely. They’re (sort of) useful. But would one or two, even 5 or 6, not be enough? Instead of, oh, 4 or 5 hundred? I guess I just don’t have the gene (though I fully appreciate that in lean years–and there have been a number of those), the fly rod trade has served us well.

I know there are people who collect dog stuff, either in general or specific to a breed to which they are partial. I have a pin of an airedale. And I once gave the pack leader an Airedale Pale Ale tee shirt he wears at the gym. But that’s as far as I can take it. Two airedales are in and of themselves a complete collection for me.

What about you–do you collect stuff related to dogs? What do you have, and what are you still looking for?