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This year's Little Yellow Dog has plenty of energy

By Michele Linck
mlinck@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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Boji, The Journal's Mr. Goodfellow charity's Little Yellow Dog, is a female cairn terrier.

SIOUX CITY -- Boji is a little dog with a sweet disposition and lots of energy.

A cairn terrier, she is the 2008 puppy for the 73rd Annual Little Yellow Dog Auction. The auction benefits the Journal's Mr. Goodfellow Charities, which gives candy, toys and books to needy children each Christmas season.

Boji is 10 weeks old and weighs 3.5 pounds, according to Dr. Bradley Benson, the veterinarian who chose the dog. Full-grown, she'll weigh 10 to 12 pounds.

The donors, three brothers each from the Wooldridge and Hirsch families, bought her in memory of Dr. Nort and Marilyn Hirsch, their late father/stepfather and mother/stepmother, according to Jeff Wooldridge, a son of Marilyn. They named her Boji in appreciation of the 35 years the couple spent visiting Lake Okoboji.

"It's a cute little breed," said Benson, who brought Boji to the Journal Tuesday for a photo shoot. "They tend to be very loyal. They're spunky and energetic. They need plenty of exercise to wind down that energy."

Boji, in particular, is fairly quiet and calm, he said, content in the cage or out of it. Benson, of the Roach Animal Hospital in Sioux City, said Boji follows the age-old routine of past Little Yellow Dogs: She stays at the office during the day, becoming socialized through contact with a wide variety of people, then goes home at night with hospital staffer Kathy Salmon, who has three dogs of her own.

Cairn terriers originated in Great Britain and are named for their ability to hunt among the rocks, or cairns, Benson said. Fox hunters would carry them on their horses. When the fox disappeared into rocky terrain, they'd let the little dogs to the ground to chase them out.

And, yes, Dorothy's Toto was a cairn terrier, famous for chasing the Wizard of Oz out from behind his curtain.

Boji's donors are stepbrothers Jeff, Neal and Steve Wooldridge, and Chuck, Steve and Tom Hirsch. Jeff, Neal and Chuck are all members of the Effervescent Order of the Little Yellow Dog, the club that handles the auction. They are also Tailwaggers, a group that goes out to corporations and organizations raising money for Mr. Goodfellow Charities.

Jeff Wooldridge is the current Master Tailwagger. He said their parents had been involved in the auction for many years. The brothers teamed up in 1999 to make the winning bid for that year's Little Yellow Dog, a golden retriever.

Last year's Little Yellow Dog was a male golden retriever dubbed Brubeck. He brought $20,000 from an impromptu club of five Heelan Catholic High School alumni, D.A. Davis, Roger Miller, Leonard Gill, Paul Braunger and Bill Barkley, who planned to give him to a Ponca, Neb., family.

If you go
What: The Little Yellow Dog auction
When: 11 a.m. Dec. 13
Where: Terra Centre atrium, 600 Fourth St., Sioux City
More information: The master of cermonies is local radio personality Randy Renshaw, with music by the All-America Band. The auction starts at noon, called by international champion auctioneer Bruce Brock.
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Story Comments

Get facts straight wrote on Dec 8, 2008 9:41 PM:

" "Any dog sold at auctions that is under 8 weeks of age or without microchip identification will be ineligible for AKC registration and shall be placed on permanent referral." "

SetterRescue wrote on Dec 4, 2008 9:38 AM:

" The American Kennel Club (AKC) will suspend privileges of any breeder who donates a dog or puppy to a raffle or auction. "

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