Living a few miles east of 
Pasadena, and being both flower lovers and pet lovers, it’s exciting to check out the Rose Bowl Parade floats every year! There are 5 premier float makers around the area that have warehouses where the floats they design are made. There are also quite a few local cities that make their own floats. They all look for volunteers to help them assemble the floats and most invite visitors to view the float making the week before the parade.
For the last few years Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance dog food has featured Tillman the skateboarding, surfing, dock diving bulldog on their impressive floats, so we headed for the Fiesta warehouse in Irwindale to catch a sneak preview of this year’s float. Tillman was dressed in his military uniform to salute the Military Working Dogs Monument, “Canines with Courage.” Natural Balance President Joey Herrick not only built a replica of the new Monument to the dogs of all 4 branches of the military but largely paid for the Monument to be built and travel the U.S. before it ends up in its permanent location at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio,TX later this year. The actual monument was also on location outside the Fiesta Warehouse. Check out the Natural Balance website for more info about the Monument.
A surprise that we weren’t expecting at the Fiesta warehouse was the Beverly Hills Pet Care Foundation float called “Follow the Stars…Adopt A Pet!” It featured animated puppies and kittens showed off their playfulness to the music of Capt.& Tennille singing “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier star of 2012’s silent movie “The Artist” rode the float with available adoptable dogs. Uggie himself was rescued from a dog pound by trainer Omar Von Muller.
Both floats were decorated with a wide array of spices, seeds, grasses, rices, and flowers that included the most colorful displays of roses, lisianthus, lilies, iris, gerbera daisies, renunculas, tulips, anthurium and many more fragrant blossoms covering their respective floats. So exciting and another way for our family to celebrate the fun that pets bring to our lives!