Dogs strut their stuff at annual Lynn parade

LYNN – It was red, white and fur on Grant Street on Friday as friends, neighbors and their canine companions gathered at the Hanson home for the 12th Annual Fourth of July Dog Parade.”People come from all over,” said Pat Hanson, who launched the event on a whim more than a decade ago. “There are people from other cities, people I work with and neighbors. We raise a little money for Northeast Animal Shelter, and we have some fun.”Sporting a tiny red, white and blue top hat, Ozzy, an Australian Shepherd/lab mix, made his 12th appearance in the parade.”He is 14 and actually came from Northeast Animal Shelter and has been to every dog parade,” said Swampscott resident Patty Bradford.Bradford and Hanson worked together at Salem State University until Hanson’s recent retirement.”This party’s really for Pat, not the dogs,” said Scott Bradford, Patty’s husband.The Bradfords’ daughter, Samantha, walked Hanson’s black lab, Magic, as roughly 16 dogs and 25 people moved down Grant Street headed toward Lynnfield Street and looped back up to Hanson’s home, where bowls of water and a table of donuts were waiting.Fendi, making her parade debut, scurried to keep up with the crowd. The Chihuahua lived up to her fashionable name, dressed in a red and white striped T-shirt, blue scarf and white tutu with tiny bows. Her owner, Shanice Clarke, adopted Fendi from a shelter in Colorado, where she lives. Clarke brought her home to Lynn, where she grew up, to be with her mother, Millicent.”We weren’t really dog lovers, but when we saw her, well, how can you not love her?” said Millicent Clarke. “She’ll live on Lynnfield Street now with me.”Fendi was not the only clothes hound on parade.Talulah Bella, a 6-year-old Yorkie that could easily sit in a shoe, wore a black and pink dress with matching bow, while Boo, a very excited dachshund, wore a short desert camouflage vest with red and blue ribbons on his collar. Norri, a golden retriever/lab mix, was wrapped in red and blue spangled garland, and Lily, a soft English setter, sported a gray Old Navy Fourth of July T-shirt.Only Ava, a 2-year-old black lab, had her nails done.”I do her nails all the time,” said Sue Mah, holding Ava’s leash. “She sits so still, I blow on them to dry them then we do the other foot.”Mah and her daughter Jamie wrangled three dogs in the parade.”I live over on Den Quarry,” Mah said. “But I have friends on this street, which is what brought us in the first place.”Linda Lebrasseur said she has been bringing Lily to the event for about seven years.”She was so excited this morning,” she said. “It’s like she remembers.”Boo and his buddy Luke live next door to the Hansons and have also never missed a parade. Neither have Scout, a pointer mix, or Gus, a lab mix, “because it’s just a fun thing to do,” said Janet Mckeever.Denise Ianetti, owner of Talulah Bella, agreed there is no other event like it in the city, which makes it special.Post parade, old friends leaned against the stone wall and lingered on the sidewalk chatting, catching up while the dogs did the same, sniffing, sprawling and occasionally letting loose with a bark or two.Iannetti joked that when she sees the dog owners over the course of the year, she often can’t remember their names, but she knows the dogs’.”It was a better turnout than I expected,” said Bob Hanson, who now watches the parade from a seat on the sidewalk. “Especially with the weather forecast.”Arthur and his predicted rain stayed at bay, and, for that, Pat Hanson was grateful.”It’s a nice event,” she said. “Everyone is so busy now, we don’t get to see each other. This gives us a chance to just hang out.”