As the French bulldogs entered the ring on Monday afternoon, Patricia Hearst Shaw, looking as unassuming as the average spectator, took a seat in the front row of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Dressed casually in a striped top and black pants, she did not seem to fit the part of the well-heeled women of Westminster or its dog-sweater-wearing fanciers. On the edge of a green-carpeted show ring, she teetered between anonymity and renown.
Hearst Shaw, the 62-year-old granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, has been a regular on the dog-show circuit for more than decade.