It was back – the bandstand rendition of “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?” wafted across downtown during the Kiwanis Pet Parade Saturday for the first time since 2019.
When Pattie Page recorded it as a novelty song in 1952, Los Altos pets had already been parading for five years. The parade, and its peculiarly haunting musical staple, captured a timelessness that
COVID couldn’t touch last weekend, as a new generation of young people tried to piece together the “whys” and “hows” of costumed mascots, lizards and one particularly magisterial cat proceeding down Main and up State streets.
This, the 75th iteration of the Kiwanis Pet Parade, featured open-top classic cars with local dignitaries and two bands, with Ye Olde Towne Band lapping the parade route (and intoning that yearning for a doggie) and the Los Trancos Woods Community Marching Band donning animal costumes of all kinds and whimsically pushing an enormous drum in a stroller frame.
Even the Santa Clara County Fire Department engine, when closely examined, included a (real) dog peeking out the window alongside a female firefighter as they motored through town. Humane Society Silicon Valley’s cat ambassador Orion, mentioned above, proved the most unruffled of several cats in attendance, and animal mascots abounded among the 13 local preschool, elementary and middle school groups marching – the violin, guitars and woodblock that joined Egan Junior High’s woodwinds made for a singular musical effect spot on for the quirky day. Bay Area Basset Hounds made a strong showing (10 hounds), and two French poodles teamed up with a French bulldog to march as a Francophile affinity group.
Robert Henely, who led this year’s parade organization for the Kiwanis Club, said 55 participants had registered this year, ranging from local nonprofits to individual families. The Kiwanis plan is to parade each year strictly as a good deed for the community.
“It’s just fun,” Henely said. “There’s nothing happier than to see some kid bring his goldfish in a little red wagon.
