Henry Huggins

When visiting the Lucky Dog Pet Shop again to purchase horse meat from Mr. Pennycuff, Henry learns that the town is having a dog show, and the winner will receive prizes from the Woofies Dog Food Company. Mr. Pennycuff encourages Henry to enter Ribsy in the contest, but Henry isn’t sure since Ribsy isn’t a pure-bred dog. Mr. Pennycuff gives him the form, which has a space for mixed-breed dogs, and Henry decides to enter Ribsy. On the way home, Henry sees Scooter, Robert, Mary Jane, Beezus, and Ramona playing outside and tells them about the dog show. Scooter scoffs, “Aw. Ribsy’s just an old mutt!” (123), but Henry defends his dog and claims that he is intelligent. Looking at the impressive list of prizes, Mary Jane says she will enter her dog Patsy, and Robert will enter his old dog, Sassy. Since Beezus and Ramona don’t have a dog, they will borrow a friend’s puppy, Puddles. Scooter claims his dog Rags is the most intelligent dog on the street and will surely take the top prize. Henry says Ribsy can do tricks, but Scooter cruelly says that if he was such a good dog, then his owners wouldn’t have let him run away.

The day of the contest arrives, and Henry begs his mother to let him bathe Ribsy in the bathtub instead of the basement laundry tub. She agrees as long as he cleans up the mess. Ribsy tries to run away from the tub, but Henry catches him and brings him back, noticing how much he has grown since Henry found him at the bus stop. Instead of flea shampoo, Henry uses his mother’s fancy shampoo, which creates more soapy foam than he anticipated, and he struggles to rinse Ribsy completely. He also doesn’t have enough towels to get Ribsy dry but hopes the warm sun will dry his coat on the walk to the contest. The contest rules state that all dogs must be kept on a leash, but when Henry looks for Ribsy’s leash, he finds it chewed to bits. Thinking quickly, he grabs his mother’s clothesline and attaches the too-long rope to Ribsy’s collar.

Beezus and Ramona, carrying Puddles, walk with Henry to the park. The park is full of handsome purebred dogs of all types, some of whom are wearing costumes and bows. Henry registers Ribsy at the desk where they weigh him, and Henry is astonished that Ribsy weighs 28 pounds. Henry leads Ribsy to his assigned spot in Ring 3, but Ribsy jumps into a flower bed and rolls in the dirt. Before Henry can stop him, Ribsy is covered in mud, and Henry has no way to clean him. As he looks at the silver prize cup and sees the other owners brushing their pristine dogs, Henry feels like he has no chance of winning. When he sees a dog owner dusting his white dog with powder to make him whiter, Henry has an idea. He races home and grabs talcum powder and a brush from the bathroom and returns to the park just in time. However, when Henry dusts Ribsy with the powder, he realizes that it is pink powder; now Ribsy looks like he has pink spots. Henry decides he must cover Ribsy in the powder and hope that the judges won’t notice. Passersby stare in shock at the pink dog on display in the ring.

When it is time for judging, Ribsy, hot, tired, and confused, causes Henry to get tangled in the makeshift clothesline leash. The judge inspects Ribsy and tells Henry that he has never seen a pink dog. Henry observes the other kids guiding their dogs around the ring, but Ribsy refuses to comply. Despite what Henry sees as a poor performance, Ribsy makes the cut, and the judges send him to another ring for further judging. Robert’s Sassy doesn’t move to the next round but wins a dog whistle, and Puddles wins a squeaky rubber mouse. Mary Jane’s Patsy wins a sleep cushion, but Scooter’s dog is still in the contest. He laughs when he sees Ribsy’s pink color, and Henry wishes it were all over and regrets entering the contest. Ribsy, though, makes it through to the next round, and all Henry’s friends look on in amazement that the pink dog might win. While waiting for the final prizes, Ribsy growls at another dog, and as the dogs begin to tussle, Henry is knocked to the ground. A boy scout volunteer breaks up the fight by throwing water at the dogs. In the end, Ribsy wins the prize “for the most unusual dog in the show” (150) and receives a silver cup. Henry and Ribsy are photographed for the newspaper, and he serves Ribsy water in the silver cup.