Tag: Tournament of Roses Parade

2024 Rose Parade Features Very Important Dogs

Dogs are no strangers to the Tournament of Roses Parades held in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year’s Day (or the day after) for the past 135 years. Perhaps most memorably, live surfing dogs and not-so-live digging dogs have been featured on Rose Parade floats. In this year’s parade, dog lovers should keep an eye out for the Pasadena Humane float and, for the first time ever, an official parade “First Dog.”

Pasadena Humane Float Raises Awareness of Homeless Pets

Among the VIDs (very important dogs) in the 2024 parade are those riding on Pasadena Humane’s “Feed the Love” float. In addition to floral pets, the float features a few lucky dogs from the shelter who are now in loving forever homes.

Also riding the float is Lua, a Pit Bull mix who arrived at Pasadena Humane as a stray back in 2022.

“Lua is the perfect representation of many of the ‘longer stay’ shelter dogs at our shelter and other shelters around the country over the past year,” writes Pasadena Humane President Dia DuVernet. “She’s a well-mannered, middle-aged, large-breed dog who is likely overlooked due to her breed, age and size.”

Lua is “sweet, playful, and extremely loving, and adored by our staff, volunteers and her foster family,” Pasadena Humane wrote in a Facebook post. “Lua is honored to be representing all the amazing dogs in shelters across the country who are waiting for their new homes.”

First-Ever Official Rose Parade ‘First Dog’

The first-ever official Tournament of Roses Parade “First Dog” is Murphy, a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever who just happens to belong to Tournament of Roses President Alex Aghajanian. Murphy will be riding with his family on a double-decker red Omnibus,

“I knew about a year and a half after we got him that including him in the parade was a way to include other dog lovers,” Aghajanian told the Los Angeles Daily News. This year’s parade theme is “Celebrating the World of Music: The Universal Language,” and Aghajanian also wanted to celebrate his love of dogs.

Murphy’s official coat was created at Maestro’s Custom Tailors in Sierra Madre, Calif. It’s made of silk, with loops for a fancy bow-tie collar. Murphy had to visit the shop a few times for fittings—and to get used to those fittings.

“He’s not a human,” Kristine Keshishyan, whose husband designed Murphy’s coat, told the Daily News. “Because when you say, ‘Stand up,’ he lays down.” Murphy was given some treats to help make the fittings go more smoothly.

Keshishyan has been afraid of dogs since she was a little girl, but “First Dog” Murphy changed that. “It’s the first time in my life I petted a dog,” she told the Daily News. “It was a good day.”

Aghajanian said Murphy is the smartest dog he’s ever known. “It makes you want to talk to him, but then, when you ask him a question, you realize he can’t talk back to you,” he told the Daily News.

Happy New Year! My wish for 2024—besides world peace—is that Lua and all other amazing adoptable dogs find the loving homes they deserve.

The 135th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade livestreams and airs on various channels starting at 8 a.m. PST on Jan. 1, 2024.

Photo: Pasadena Humane

Hero Cat Who Saved Boy from Dog Attack Honored in 2018 Rose Parade

Remember this amazing viral video captured by a security camera a few years ago? As a little boy sat on his bicycle in his Bakersfield, Calif., front yard, a neighbor’s Chow/Lab mix ran at him, bit his leg and pulled him to the ground. The boy’s mom ran to save him.

But before she could reach him, like a superhero from out of nowhere, the family’s cat, a 7-year-old Tabby named Tara, pounced on the dog and chased him away.

The 5-year-old boy, Jeremy Triantafilo, needed 10 stitches on his leg, but it could have been a lot worse if not for Tara, a former stray adopted by his family. (Sadly, although several people offered to adopt and rehabilitate the 8-month-old dog, and thousands signed online petitions asking for the young dog’s life to be spared, his owner decided to have him euthanized.)

For the first time ever, in 2015 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) gave its annual National Hero Dog honor to a cat — Tara.

“We were so impressed by Tara’s bravery and fast action that the selection committee decided that a cat this spectacular should be the National Hero Dog,” spcaLA President Madeline Bernstein said in a statement at the time.

Three years later, Tara is being honored for her bravery again — this time by being featured on a float in the 2018 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day. The parade’s theme this year is “Making a Difference.”

Tara and her family will be aboard the Lucy Pet “Paws For Life” float, which honors heroic animals who saved, protected and made a difference in human lives: specifically, three dogs and one cat.

“We are honored to be working with such heroic animals and the people who love them,” said Joey Herrick, president and founder of the Lucy Pet Foundation and Lucy Pet Products. “We salute the animals for their love, companionship and bravery…whether it’s a cat protecting a little boy from a vicious dog attack or a military working dog shielding soldiers in combat, they each deserve this very special recognition.”

Lucy Pet is a family-owned pet-product business based in California. Its proceeds help fund the nonprofit Lucy Pet Foundation, whose mission is to reduce pet overpopulation and the euthanasia of over 60,000 dogs and cats per week in the United States.

Tara joins these canine heroes on the Lucy Pet float:

  • Sirius, a retired K-9 military working dog who was in Afghanistan with his best friend and handler, 22-year-old Marine Sgt. Joshua Ashley, when Ashley was killed by an IED. Although the German Shepherd was also injured, he returned to Afghanistan again for an additional tour of duty. Sirius was adopted by Ashley’s family and will ride the float with Joshua’s mom, Tammie, in memory of her son.
  • Jax, a Belgian Malinois police dog with the Oxnard Police Department in California. During a recent routine traffic stop, Jax sniffed out 5 pounds of methamphetamine disguised to look like a wrapped birthday gift. He also apprehended a man trying to set a homeless encampment on fire.
  • Rocket, a Border Collie mix who was going to be euthanized by a shelter due to his high energy level (what?!). Fortunately, a Search Dog Foundation recruiter saw his potential and rescued him. Rocket now pays it forward by saving victims who become trapped during natural disasters, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and the Northern California wildfires this past year.

Actor, animal advocate and totally cool guy Danny Trejo will also be riding on the float with his rescue dog, Penny Lane.

High above the float is a replica of an Army Black Hawk helicopter, from which a highly specialized military working dog team will demonstrate a tandem rappelling operation during the parade. At the center of the float is “a rotating hexagon, with eight magnificently detailed floral-graphs, featur[ing] many inspiring photographic moments of heroic pets and working canines,” according to the Pasadena Star-News.

For the 2017 Tournament of Roses Parade, the Lucy Pet Foundation’s “Beachside Paradise” float, featuring eight surfing dogs, broke two Guinness World Records as the parade’s longest and heaviest float ever.

The 129th Rose Parade begins at 8 a.m. PST on Jan. 1. You can watch it live on ABC, NBC, the Hallmark Channel, HGTV and other channels.

Photo: spcaLA

2017 Rose Parade Float with Surfing Dogs Breaks World Records

If you’re like me, your favorite floats in the Tournament of Roses Parade each year are the ones that feature dogs, whether the pups are real or flower-covered facsimiles.

For a few years, the dog food company Natural Balance partnered with the nonprofit Lucy Pet Foundation, which provides low-cost spay/neuter and adoption mobile clinics, to create floats featuring surfing, skateboarding or snowboarding dogs — especially a multi-talented Bulldog named Tillman, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge in October 2015.

Surfing dogs are back in the 2017 parade, thanks to a partnership between the Lucy Foundation and American Wave Machines, Inc. And, for the first time in the parade’s 128-year history, the float will break two Guinness World Records as the parade’s longest and heaviest float ever. The “Beachside Paradise” float, built by Fiesta Parade Floats, is 126 feet long and weighs 148,200 pounds — including the 8,000 gallons of water it will hold for the dogs to surf on.

Eight Dogs a-Surfing

The eight surfing dogs won a national competition to secure their spots on the float. A machine provided by American Wave Machines will produce the perfect wave for them every five seconds. After each dog catches a wave, he or she will ride in a car-shaped cage along a track back to the front of the pool.

To make sure the dogs were comfortable with the wave machine, Motortrend reports that the rear section of the float that contains the generator and wave pool was transported by truck to surfing competitions around the country so the dogs could test it out.

The surfers hanging 10 — er, 20 — are Surfin’ Jack, a Golden Retriever/Saluki mix who’s also a registered service dog; Sully, an English Bulldog (and Tillman lookalike); Coppertone, a miniature Dachshund who’s believed to be the best small surfing dog;  Fred, a McNab Shepherd who’s also a champion disc dog; Haole, a Labrador Retriever who provides surf therapy for special-needs children; Macho, a Jack Russell Terrier who’s also a champion dock diver; Turbo, a Golden Retriever who once helped rescue a swimmer caught in a riptide; and last but certainly not least, Rooster, an Australian Shepherd who also holds a master dock diving title.

The parade begins on Jan. 2 at 8 a.m. Pacific Time. It will be broadcast on ABC, NBC, HGTV and several other networks. (The parade is held on Jan. 2 when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, a tradition that goes back to 1893. The reason for the one-day delay was because the parade passed churches where horses were tied outside, and the parade organizers didn’t want to spook the horses or interrupt the church services.)

DigAlert Rose Parade Float Features Digging Dogs

Jan. 1, 2015 UPDATE: Congrats to DigAlert for winning the Rose Parade’s Bob Hope Humor Trophy! And it was so cold in Pasadena this morning (32 degrees) that the real water would not spurt as it was supposed to from the broken pipes. Oh well!

“Inspiring Stories” is the theme of the 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade. While there apparently won’t be any inspiring snowboarding or adoptable dogs on floats, as there have been in recent parades, an animated dog wreaking havoc with a backhoe is featured on the DigAlert float, “Do It Right — Call 811.”

DigAlert (aka the Underground Service Alert of Southern California) is a free service that locates underground utilities on properties in this region. It was formed in 1976 after a construction crew accidentally struck a petroleum pipeline in Culver City, causing an explosion that killed nine people and burned a city block to the ground.

“Before you stick anything in the ground, including a shovel, make sure you first contact DigAlert at www.digalert.org or call 811,” DigAlert warns in a fact sheet. “Underground utilities can be just about anywhere on a piece of property. If you hit a gas line, you could start a fire that destroys an entire neighborhood. Strike an electrical line and you could be electrocuted.”

To bring this to people’s attention, the service, which is funded by more than 900 local utilities, has created a humorous 2015 Rose Parade float, described as follows:

“The whole community has shown up to lend a helping hand to install a new bird-house condo. White picket fences line the manicured lawn bordered with colorful hollyhocks and a wisteria pergola. A crew of comical canines steadies the teetering birdhouse posts as a drilling backhoe driven by a madcap dog sporadically jerks and sputters up and down as it moves from side to side. Oh, my gosh, the backhoe auger has hit a main water pipe, and now a torrent of water is flooding the scene! Watching the zany backyard dishevelment unfold before are wide-eyed neighbors and feathery friends.”

The backhoe will emit puffs of theatrical “smoke,” while real water spurts from the broken pipes.

In keeping with the Rose Parade float rule of only using flowers and plant materials, the dogs’ fur is created from golden and brown flax seed, curly white coconut chips, dark brown nyjer seed, dried cranberry leaves, gold strawflower petals, orange-red safflower spice, orange marigold petals, silky grass, uva grass and pampas grass. (Wow.) Their eyes are decorated in black seaweed, green split peas, blue sinuate statice and brown flax seed.

As for the “Inspiring Stories” theme, Cliff Meidl will be riding on the float. In 1986, Meidl suffered an extreme electrical shock when his jackhammer touched unmarked high-voltage electrical cables at a construction site. He was told by doctors at the time that he would never walk again, but defied the odds and became a two-time Olympian and flag bearer for the USA team.

DigAlert made its Rose Parade debut in 2014 with the float, “Protecting Your Dream, Right in Your Own Backyard” — which also featured an animated dog operating a backhoe. The float won the award for Best Animation & Movement.

The 2015 Rose Parade will be broadcast Jan. 1 beginning at 8 a.m. PST on ABC, Hallmark Channel, HGTV, NBC, Univision, RFD-TV, Family Net, Rural Radio on Sirius XM and Sky Link TV. It will also air in Los Angeles on KTLA, beginning at 5 a.m. and repeated throughout the day.

Photo via Facebook

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