Dog Parades

If you've been reading along with me the whole way, you will have come to realize that the end of my posts about football inevitably lead to posts about parades. Prior to this weekend, I had talked about going to a couple of parades, but hadn't actually been to any. There were a few decent ones on Saturday, but I skipped those as well. But I was excited to return to the Krewe of Mutts -- the parade for dogs in downtown Baton Rouge.

We had a perfect day, with sunshine and temperatures in the 60s. The dogs were supposed to be the Blues Brothers, but being young and ornery, they refused to keep their hats or sunglasses on. So they ended up just being dogs in white shirts and black ties. It was still kind of funny, but there's no substitute for a dog who wears sunglasses. Dogs who wear sunglasses always get their due props.

	Trying to put the hats and sunglasses on the dogs before the costume contest. There was no contest -- the dogs beat the humans in this endeavor.

There were a ton of people out there, but I don't really have any funny stories. A boxer barked in one of the Asian Cajun twin's face and made her cry. That was funny to me, but only because I'm an evil bastard. Oh yeah, and because I heard strangers on the road point out Steve and Jodie as the people with the crying little girl. (Why would they care that some stranger in the parade has a crying kid? That's just wierd.)

Then last night, we caught the very end of the Westminster Dog Show. Tuesday is obviously a slow TV night. The dogs up for best in show were mostly odd-looking ones. Only a couple looked like they could possibly be pets, and two of them were the silliest-looking poodles that I've ever seen. They didn't look like dogs at all. One was one of those tiny little poodles, and the other was actually dog-sized, but both of them fit every stereotype that you could imagine.

The show was at Madison Square Garden, and I swear I heard booing when the big poodle started doing its laps. My immediate thought was, "Man, I love New Yorkers! Booing a DOG! How low is that!" Unfortunately, the dog didn't seem to mind.

Then I got to thinking, "Would dog show people really boo a dog?" They put on jackets and ties to go to Madison Square Garden; these aren't the Knicks fans who normally occupy those same seats. So I decided that they were really saying, "Pooooooooooooooodle."

You may have heard that Bill Cosby's dog made the final. It was some breed I never heard of. Cute body, but wierd face. (I remember using that same sentance to describe some of my dates during my first college semester.)

I have a handful of pictures from the parade posted here.

It ended with a fizzle. It's definitely an event that needs some live music and a beer truck at the end. Perhaps I'll push for that next year. Or maybe, we'll try Krewe of Barkus in New Orleans.