Auctioneer aglow; dogs at big show

AUCTIONEER CHEER: Last weekend, Shannon Hunter of Hunter’s Auction Service in Mena became the first woman to ever win the Arkansas State Auctioneers Pro Bid Calling competition in Hot Springs.

That would be impressive on its own.

But consider that Hunter, who had part of her tongue removed in December due to oral cancer, wasn’t sure she’d be able to speak again.

“I don’t smoke, never have. I don’t dip, never have,” Hunter says. Yet in November, a spot on her tongue was diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma. “And I’m freaking out because this is my living. I’m thinking, ‘Of all the places, why there?’”

Says the mother of two sets of twins about the surgery: “I’ve had C-sections, but that was the most painful thing I’ve ever had in my life. The first two weeks I was swollen and couldn’t talk. It was bad.”

As she began healing, she told her husband she wanted another try — her third or maybe fourth — at the annual contest to be judged on her chant and selling of items. “I said, ‘I’m doing this competition this year again because who knows what next year is going to bring?’ You realize when you go through that, the uncertainty is what really gets you — me not knowing what I would be able to do afterwards.

“Because I love getting up on the block and selling and talking to my crowd and keeping them entertained.”

Entertain she did at last weekend’s competition, earning a trophy, a check for $500, a championship belt buckle and the chance to compete at the 2018 International Auctioneers Conference and Show of the National Auctioneers Association in Florida in July. PAW AWE: The 142nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is in progress in New York City, and we know of several barking Arkies taking part.

Terry Smith, a handler of 15 years from Beebe, took seven dogs in a 45-foot motor home. Among them: Apollo, a Manchester terrier; Tater, a toy fox terrier; and Cole, a beagle.

Absent are owners Kevin and Laine Berry of Conway. But Dilly — “the No. 1 Pomeranian in the nation,” Laine says — will be there with handler Jessie Barringer (formerly of Arkansas).

“I’m superstitious,” says Laine, a former Mrs. Arkansas and Mrs. International. “The last show we went to, [Dilly] did not perform. He did not behave well. We’re going to watch on livestream.”

You can too at westminsterkennelclub.org and foxsportsgo.com.

Or watch from 7-10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday on Fox Sports 1 via “kibble” TV.