reporter: dan stallings started entering him in shows, and maverick started winning. until he made it here. to the big dog of dog shows, westminster. if he wins today, how are you going to feel? i can t even imagine. i can t. that would really tear me up. i d be so happy for him. reporter: as maverick and his trainer paraded before the judge, stallings and i watched together. i haven t been this nervous in a while. reporter: in the end, though, the judge picked another dog. he didn t make it. no. reporter: afterwards, stallings said he wasn t disappointed, that maverick had in a sense already won. there s my boy. there s my boy. this is what it s all about. this is what it s all about every day. reporter: maverick, he said, had gone from forgotten to unforgettable. dan harris, abc news, new york. aw. you and your dog, right? can you imagine your dog next year? there we go. there we go. me and my pet you and your ugly dog? look at that thing. oh, man.
story is anything but normal. reporter: in a competition where purebred dogs are spritzed, shampooed, trimmed and blown dry, where they re hand-fed steak, dressed in diapers and bowties and followed around with saliva zambonis i am like dodging drool like i m in a video game. reporter: in this orgy of canine entitlement this dog, named maverick, is an exception. it seems to me just incredible that here we are at the super bowl of dogs and this is a dog you found on craigslist. it was a rescue dog that was abused and neglected. absolutely. reporter: he was so thin you could see his ribs. his nose was infected, and he chewed his own tail raw. but dan stallings nursed maverick back to health, and their bond is now palpable. i have to say we re in this room full of people. it s like you re the only one here for him. he s the only one here for me. that s right. reporter: five months after rescuing maverick you re a good boy. yes, you are.
good evening. we begin tonight with the evidence of a kind of shadow war now being waged by iran around the world. tonight, israeli and jewish facilities everywhere, including here in the u.s., are on heightened alert. overseas, today, three u.s. warships defied iranian threats and entered the vital oil gateway, the strait of hormuz. our martha raddatz onboard and she ll bring us her report in a moment. first, we want to tell you what is causing this new concern and the evidence of secret iranian attacks. abc s chief investigative correspondent brian ross has been talking to the fbi all day. brian? reporter: it appears to be hit squad versus hit squad. the fbi telling abc news tonight, it is worried the violence could spill over to the u.s. israeli diplomatic facilities and jewish places of worship, in ten u.s. cities, told they could be targets. following the series of violent attacks by iran, for the apparent retaliation of for the death of five iranian scientists. it was