25 years of Rescue Parades and still counting!

by Jane Dempsey and Claire Gilbert Photos by Niki Fine

On May 14, 1994, Old English Sheepdog Rescue of Southern California held their first rescue parade and no one would have thought there would be an annual parade still going strong 25 years later. The parade started as a way for our volunteers to see how the dogs they helped were doing after they left our rescue program.

Over 2300 OES have gone through our rescue program in the last 29 years. As anyone in rescue knows, one pours their hearts and time into the dogs and then the dogs leave us. We get many photos so we do see how they are doing, but IN PERSON makes it so real.

This year, we dedicated our parade to our vet, Dr. Richard Martin.  At one of the early parades, Dr. Martin said how the rescue dogs appear so unsure of what is going on when we first see them come in the rescue program. This year, he commented that the owners think they are showing off their dogs but the 40 dogs in the parade are really showing off their owners.

We also do education with the children attending.  Each child received a bi-lingual coloring book that explains the Doggie Do’s and Don’ts. We know the future of dogs is in the hands of our children and their animal education is important.  We all have a great time and the children take the coloring books home to finish all the pages.

We would like to thank our volunteers of all ages, our supporters and our donors over the last 29 years – we would not be here without your help. It does take a village to make a rescue program a success.

Our parade kicked off the festivities at ‘Woofstock 90210’, a daylong celebration at Roxbury Park produced by the City of Beverly Hills. We look forward to our 26th Annual Parade at ‘Woofstock 90210’ on Sunday, November 3, 2019. We hope you will join us!