NEW YORK -- When he was a boy, Hiram Stewart took a bus to Virginia, put a puppy in a paper bag and cradled it all the way home to New Orleans.

For more than three decades, he's cared for dogs in the Big Easy. Usually champion dogs, the kind that will reach the Best in Show ring this week at Westminster.

Still, nothing prepared him for what he saw happening to pets around town after Hurricane Katrina hit. Like that pair of little beagles with the pleading eyes, chained inside a garage.

"Every time a car would drive by, they'd come out, hoping it was their owner," Stewart said. "I knew the situation better than those two poor dogs did. It wasn't going to be just a few days."

Stewart believes those beagles came out OK. But thousands of their companions didn't, and America's most prestigious dog show remembered them -- and those who helped -- with a moving tribute Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

Hours earlier, the Westminster Kennel Club show started a day after the biggest snowstorm in city history blanketed New York. A total of 2,622 dogs in 165 breeds and varieties were entered -- some didn't make it because of the bad weather, though there was no exact count.

A colored bull terrier named Rufus, the top-winning pug ever, a Rottweiler led by a former Florida State linebacker and a Dalmatian called Boomer were the big winners Monday night.

In a show featuring lots of underdogs, Rufus beat a favored Norfolk terrier named Coco and a Dandie Dinmont terrier co-owned by Bill Cosby to win the terrier group.

"I guess we're going shopping," winning handler Kathy Kirk said.

Shaka became the first Rottweiler to win the working group at Westminster. Owner-breeder-handler Keith Carter pumped his fist when his dog was picked.

"I don't know if I can articulate what this win means," he said.

Boomer took the nonsporting group and will try to become the first of his kind to win Best in Show in 130 years of Westminster. Dermot the pug won the toy group and will aim for his 66th overall Best in Show title.

The hound, herding and sporting groups were to be judged Tuesday night, with Best in Show chosen shortly before 11 p.m.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C2.