Street Scene: Pooches on Parade

As the scaled-back Rose Fest readies its Porch Parade, a tribute to the canceled Rose City Classic Dog Show.

May 24, 2021

K.B. Dixon

Culture, Photography

One of the many events that disappeared from the calendar this year as a consequence of Covid was the Rose City Classic Dog Show. A local favorite and one of the largest such shows in the country, it is normally held at the Expo Center in mid-January. It is a show that has always had a tone of its own. The snoots are there, of course (both owners and dogs), but not in the numbers needed to co-opt the general ambiance. One was just as likely to find a dog named Rex wandering about as one named Baron of Crofton.

Inspired by the Rose Festival’s “Porch Parade” (the Festival’s answer, running May 31-June 13, to the cancellation of its Grand Floral extravaganza), I have cobbled together belatedly a down-market homage to the Rose City Classic—the “Pooch Parade,” a cynophile-friendly selection of archived photographs from Portland’s dog-dappled streets.

Studying Menu, 2019

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Sleeping Dog Lies, 2016

Sidekick, 2018

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Suspicious Bassett, 2012

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Introduction, 2016

Passenger, 2014

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Dining Alfresco, 2019

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Admiration, 2017

Two of a Kind, 2014

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Grooming, 2018

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Ebony and Ivory, 2018

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Argyle Sweater, 2013

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Dog on Leash, 2019

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Family, 2019

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Benched, 2014

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K.B. Dixon

K.B. Dixon’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals. His most recent collection of stories, Artifacts: Irregular Stories (Small, Medium, and Large), was published in Summer 2022. The recipient of an OAC Individual Artist Fellowship Award, he is the winner of both the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Eric Hoffer Book Award. He is the author of seven novels: The Sum of His Syndromes, Andrew (A to Z), A Painter’s Life, The Ingram Interview, The Photo Album, Novel Ideas, and Notes as well as the essay collection Too True, Essays on Photography, and the short story collection, My Desk and I. Examples of his photographic work may be found in private collections, juried exhibitions, online galleries, and at K.B. Dixon Images.