UPDATE: Pasadena Humane needs your help! The shelter has been taking in many pets displaced by the horrible Los Angeles area wildfires. Please consider making a cash donation to its Eaton Fire Emergency Fund—any amount really helps!
With the theme of the 2025 Tournament of Roses Parade being “Best Day Ever,” there are plenty of floats featuring animals—and people—enjoying the times of their lives. Dog lovers should keep an eye out for the “Welcome Home” float by Pasadena Humane and Hill’s Nutrition. This partnership’s “Feed the Love” float last year featured adoptable pets, while “Welcome Home” is dedicated to shelter pets whose best day ever was being adopted into loving forever homes.
The float “celebrates the joy and companionship pets bring to our lives while highlighting the life-saving power of adoption—especially for vulnerable pets like large dogs,” according to a Pasadena Humane press release. “Every dog and cat featured on the float has been adopted from Pasadena Humane with support from Hill’s Food, Shelter & Love Program.”
Aboard the float will be depictions of Lua, who was also featured last year. She’s the dog sleeping on the armchair at the back of the float. In last year’s float, Lua represented the longer-stay, large-breed and older dogs at Pasadena Humane and other animal shelters. Lua got her own best day ever soon after the 2024 parade: Her foster mom became a “foster failure” (the best type of failure!) and officially adopted this special girl.
The other dogs depicted on the “Welcome Home” float include Miracle, who survived being hit by a vehicle, and Scooter, a paralyzed dog fitted with a wheelchair by Pasadena Humane. The dogs will be joined by six cats. You can read all about these pets on the Pasadena Humane website.
The Pasadena Star-News has a complete list of the parade floats and the order in which they’ll appear. The 136th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade livestreams and airs on various channels starting at 8 a.m. PST on Jan. 1, 2025.
Shelter Dogs Predict the 2025 Rose Bowl Winner
In addition to featuring overlooked shelter pets on its Rose Parade float, Pasadena Humane also raised awareness of large shelter dogs last week when it hosted its second annual event where the dogs predicted the winner of the 2025 Rose Bowl Game. These “pup-nosticators” were featured on CBS News and some local Los Angeles TV stations.
To predict the winner, 17 large dogs were given the choice of eating dog food from a bowl representing the Oregon Ducks or a bowl representing the Ohio State Buckeyes.
It was neck and neck for a while, but the Oregon Ducks were the predicted winner. Hopefully these large dogs will soon be winners, too.
“We’re seeing people facing housing restrictions and other hardships that make it hard to keep a large dog,” Dia DuVernet, president and CEO of Pasadena Humane, told CBS News. Kudos to Pasadena Humane for its efforts to help get these dogs adopted.
Happy New Year! My wish for 2025—besides world peace—is that all adoptable dogs, large, medium and small, find the loving homes they deserve. And, since we’ve been petless since sweet Ella died in August, my New Year’s resolution is to provide a dog or two with a forever home!
Photo: Pasadena Humane