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Wescott residents peeked out of their windows Saturday morning to the sound of upbeat jazz mixing with a cacophony of barking dogs.

“What a perfect start to my morning,” Westcott resident Eva Legge said. “I was just sitting out on my porch and I saw people walking their dogs in costume up there, I was like, ‘What’s going on?’”

The Westcott Neighborhood Association hosted their second-annual Halloween Dog Parade on Oct. 28. At 10 a.m., Syracusans and their costumed dogs started the parade at Petit Branch Library and maneuvered their way through Westcott. Association members Kimberley McCoy, Susannah Park, Andrea Buckvald helped spearhead the event.

“Westcott has a reputation for being a little weird,” McCoy said. “So we just wanted to have a fun little weird event to celebrate the dogs in our community, get together (and) hang out.”

While there were fears the event would be canceled due to weather, a couple dozen dogs walked next to their owners through the neighborhood, drawing awws along the way. At least five of the dogs in the parade were wearing hot dog costumes.

Other costumes ranged from one dog fitting into a Syracuse University sweatshirt, with its front two legs squeezed into its sleeves, to another dog wearing light-up fairy wings on its back. One family got into NASA gear to match their pet in a spacesuit as well as their baby dressed as Yoda.

Kristin Tryon brought her three dogs to the event. Dressing up her two pugs as pumpkins, she called them her “pug-kin patch.”
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor

Unlike last year, the parade included a New Orleans-style brass band, Second Line Syracuse, that led the way for the parade of dogs. The band included former Westcott residents as well as SU faculty and alumni.

Nick Abelgore graduated from SU in 2016 with a degree in music education and trombone performance, but joined the band while he was still a student in 2015. College of Visual and Performing Arts professor Josh Dekaney, another member of the band, lived in Westcott for nine years before moving. He loved the sense of community Westcott provided.

“(It’s) just like old times,” Dekaney said. “Really makes me want to move back here. It’s a good place, good place to raise a family, being able to walk any time of the day, even night around the neighborhood.”

The new music was only possible because of CNY Arts’ donation to the Westcott Neighborhood Association this year, said Sam Gruber, co-president of the association. With the funding, the association has also hosted poetry readings at Mom’s diner and plans to hold concerts over Thanksgiving weekend.

“We’re a community of activists, meaning not necessarily just political activists, but we don’t like to just talk about things,” Gruber said. “When you say this ought to be done, we go out and do it and that’s the spirit of what we call the Westcott nation, and it’s been that way for decades.”

Kristin Tyron, dressed in a pug onesie, felt as if she was part of the marching band while walking behind them. She came with her three dogs, all of which were wearing pumpkin costumes. Two of the dogs are pugs, so she referred to them as her “pug-kin patch.”

“It’s an opportunity to meet your neighbors, an opportunity to meet your community members and the local organizations,” Tryon said. “It’s silly and it’s fun and it’s great to see the kids out here and the dogs in their (costumes).”

Legge was on her way to dogsit for a friend when she stopped to watch the parade. Just moving to the neighborhood several months ago, she said events like this make her appreciate the community’s unity.

“What can spark a good conversation more than a dog in a beautiful pineapple costume?” Legge said.

Published on October 29, 2023 at 10:10 pm