updated 9:33 a.m. ET Feb. 14, 2006

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.

Slide show   A dog's life See highlights from before, during the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

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.

While some paint this as the Miss America of dog shows — in fact, Miss America 1990, Debbye Turner, is hosting the USA Network telecast this year — Westminster is known for reaching out into the canine community.

Westminster Dog Show Doggone good day for Best in Show winner Stump is oldest to win Best in Show Opinion: Stump charms his way to win   Slideshow: Images from Westminster Robins: Once best in show, always best in show   Slideshows: Past winners  |    Last year's show

There was hardly a dry eye in the building in 2002 when 20 German shepherds and retrievers came onto the Garden’s green carpet to honor search and rescue dogs for their tireless work at the World Trade Center and Pentagon after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Katrina tribute, featuring dogs and those that saved them, brought a standing ovation.

A video montage on the scoreboard showed images of injured and abandoned dogs, accompanied by a song from Jackson Browne. Moments later, a half-dozen dogs with Gulf Coast connections were introduced, including one that recovered from burns and an amputated toe.

Sandra Bethea brought her Bedlington terrier from Gulfport, Miss. With Mardi Gras beads on her grooming stand, she primped Talyn to a best of breed victory.

Bethea then passed on watching the tribute.

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