Montana Veteran Honored at Missoula Dog Show

They say every dog has its day. Well how about a whole weekend? At the Missoula County Fairgrounds, the American Kennel Club is having its annual dog show. And while there might be some diamonds in the rough, every dog is best in show. The three-day event kicked off in Missoula on Thursday as hundreds of owners and their four-legged friends packed into the fairgrounds to compete—including the granddaughter of a national champion! Twenty years later owner Diane McCormack is back with a different dog who she loves just as much. “She is my love, she is a special girl,” McCormack said. “She has more titles than alphabet soup. She’s also a field champion. Her nose is incredible, so my goal with her is to be Detective Karma. ” While these cute canines will steal the show, it is the community of owners and volunteers that make this weekend so special. Former Air Force Lt. Col. Rae Hodges was one of those special people. And just days after the nation honored its fallen on Memorial Day, the American Kennel Club did the same for Hodges by dedicating this weekend’s event in his honor. “He had been so active in putting on the shows. We’ve lived in Montana 22 years and I think about the second year we lived here we started attending the shows,” Rae’s wife Amanda Hodges said. “It meant a lot, the club itself meant a lot to him so I thought it was a very appropriate thing for the club to dedicate the show to him.” Other dog show participants who were familiar with Rae remarked that the former Air Force pilot was always quick to lend a helping hand. “I’m actually from Kalispell so other than at dog shows i didn’t see Rae a whole lot,” owner Sandra Nelson said. “But he helps at every dog show he went to and he was helping wherever he could help. He was just an all-around guy who was willing to take his time and help people out.” Although he is gone, the giving spirit of Hodges lives on in the love shared between these owners and their best friends. “And that, in a way, yes we love our animals, but the love the animal has for the person is probably stronger” Amanda Hodges said. “People see these dogs and these dogs are in kennels for a few hours a day, but what they don’t see is that at the end of the day these dogs come into the trailers or the tents or the campers or the hotel room, they sleep on our beds” breeder Tommy Dahl said. “These dogs go home with us every weekend or every week and they’re not show dogs, they’re our best friends.”