VIDEO: The Star Wars/Star Trek Dog Costume Contest At The Brooklyn Mutt Show

Sports blogging is not my first passion. I could quit sports forever if someone offered me a full-time job petting dogs. In a perfect world, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff would greenlight my idea for Dog Nation, and I'd fill my days blogging about fluffy tails and filming on location at no-kill shelters.

In the meantime, I'm happy enough talking about sports while shoehorning dogs into the conversation wherever possible, like my breakdown of dog football, my Westminster Dog Show petting challenge, and -- as documented in the new video below -- my visit to the Brooklyn Mutt Show, where I judged a Star Wars/Star Trek dog costume competition.

The Brooklyn Mutt Show was founded in 2010 as a light-hearted response to the more serious shows limited to purebred dogs. Held in the Brooklyn Lyceum, a bath house-turned-art space at the edge of the dog-crazy Park Slope neighborhood, the Mutt Show's various contests include Best Tail, Best Beard, Most Like Owner, and Best Kisser, and the entry fees benefit animal-friendly charities: Sean Casey Animal Rescue and the Wild Bird Fund.

But let's get to the crux of the matter: dogs in Star Wars and Star Trek costumes. Among the entrants: two different wire-haired mutts dressed as Yoda, a James T. Kirk golden retriever (with a working communicator and a matching, geeky owner), a pit bull Uhura, and -- incomprehensibly -- a skinny little shorthair dressed as the corpse of Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. I can't explain the reasoning, but I'm sure David Lynch approves.

I liked the James T. Kirk golden best, but judging is a collaborative process, and my vote only carried so far. In the end, I relented at the judges' table in order to get back to my top priority: petting the contestants. Next stop: editor of Dog Nation!