Most pre-Carnival street parties in Brazil are all about samba, but the moves on display at Sunday’s Blocao parade were focused more on wagging and strategic sniffing than on fancy footwork.
Hundreds of decked-out dogs — and a few brave cats — got in on the Carnival fun at Rio de Janeiro’s annual pet-friendly parade: Labradors in pink tutus or engineers’ overalls cavorted with Maltese terriers with fairy wings, while poodles in superheros’ capes sniffed sausage dogs dressed up as Salome, with sequin-covered harem pants.
Carnival is perhaps the defining moment in Brazilian life, and the annual Blocao — a play on the word for street party, bloco, and dog, or cao — allows four-legged family members a chance to take part in the fun.
“The animal excitement is taking over Copacabana,” Blocao organizer Marco Antonio Toto said as the parade’s sound truck, topped by an enormous inflatable terrier, crawled its way down the seaside Atlantica Avenue. “The neighborhood of Copacabana has currently the most dog owners per square meter. It deserves this prestigious party. Our animals deserve this celebration.”
Talent agent Ariane Raballo made the trip from Rio’s sister city of Niteroi to parade with her two mini Yorkies dressed as Carmen Miranda, complete with cornucopias of tiny tropical fruits on their heads.
“We come every year,” said Raballo, as Maia and Lady Kate strained at the leash to sniff the four-legged passers-by and posed coquettishly as parade-goers of the two-legged variety snapped photos with their iPhones. “They love it.”
Spirits were high, and there was remarkably few fights: Gigantic Rhodesian ridgebacks romped with teacup poodles, while lumbering labs palled around with cocker spaniels. Leashes required constant detangling as new friends taking in each others’ scent tied themselves in knots.
Even Kiko, a three-year-old dachshund dressed as a hot-dog, was enjoying himself.
“Normally, he’s not a very social dog, with humans or other dogs,” said his owner, Denis Naiff, a psychology professor whose wife and daughter were sporting matching hamburger hats. “But he’s really having fun. Must be the Carnival spirit.”
The heat looked to have some of the dogs down and some owners poured water into their pets’ mouths to cool them down.
Eduardo Jonathan, a 31-year-old makeup artist dressed as Batman, said he was suffering under his rubber costume, though Batman Jr, his five-year-old Yorkie, looked to be taking the heat in stride. The dog hammed it up for the TV cameras as Jonathan and a friend disguised as the Joker sweated off their facepaint.
Two men dressed as giant ticks looked even hotter. Their many-legged costumes were made out of synthetic fur, and both had removed their masks so as to avoid suffocation as they passed out fliers for an anti-parasite spray.
“I think the fact that the Blocao exists and that so many people are here with their pets shows that the attitudes toward animals are changing here,” said Elisabeth Monetiro, a public servant attending with her two of her three rescue dogs.
Three-year-old mutts Princesa and Juliette were dressed up as she-devils, complete with glowing red horn headbands.
“Finally, society is starting to understand that even if you don’t like animals, you have to respect them,” said Monteiro, who volunteers with an animal rights group.
London-based ceramist Mario d’Oliveira was using the occasion to make a different kind of point.
Holding an “invisible dog” on the end of a stiff wire leash, d’Oliveira approached passing children, who either laughed or nearly cried at his antics.
“You can tell a lot about people by how they react,” he said. “An invisible dog is also quite a conversation piece, so you when you walk him, you end up making lots of new friends.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home