We attended the 2026 Heartland Pride parade last weekend, and it was so fun!
This one is in full color Friends, instead of my usual dog and cat vision photos, which are notably more muted. Because Pride. And rainbows.
Doug Dog stayed home, as he was two days post-splenectomy and for sure would have tried to party too hard. He is absolutely THRIVING and feeling back to 100%! Updates soon!
Doug and Kevin
Kevin got his new collar from MazzyCo, one of my absolute favorite local businesses! Thanks MazzyCo team! We love it, and Kevin loves matching his big brother Doug!
Kevin and his new collar
Abby and Blue decorated Kevin to match the bi flag colors for Pride. Two potty-training related baths later, and he is still gorgeous!
In the parking garage before the parade, Russell explains the morning to come to Kevin who is all ears - haha! Basset joke! He is actually not yet a great listener. He does try!
Maybe my favorite photo of Kevin so far! Those eyes! Of COURSE you can have my coffee Kevin! Wait, no! Go drink your water you little dork!
In which my overly emotional self cried through the start of the celebration and Kevin the Puppy learned even sounds as loud as motorcycles make are not necessarily scary.
The motorcyclists started the parade. I honestly cried through the first fifteen minutes. As fun as Pride is, I go to thank the community members who have paved and currently pave the way for my kids to have a better and safer and more supported life than generations before them. Because of you, Blue and Abby are safe. They are happy. They can be their authentic selves as out loud as they want and need to be. I can never say thank you enough for normalizing and supporting the brilliant range of humanity around us, including our dear family, who is everything to me.
We quickly learned that in a sea of toys (mulch), if we gave Kevin the biggest toy (piece of mulch), it would cut back significantly on us needing to take toys (mulch) out of his mouth.
So yeah, puppies and rainbows. That is the sort of thing that I am strongest at writing about and highlighting. I hope you know that by writing a post focused on puppies and rainbows, what I mean on every level is THANK YOU. I love and appreciate you all so very much.
Look who we found! My favorites! From left to right, Ashley, Dave, me, Russell, Abby and Kevin, Blue
Erika and me! We have been friends longer than we have been pre-friends <3
Last week I met a very nice guy and his puppy Theo. “Do you need a groomer?” I asked. “Yes please,” he said. Then we got to see them at Pride! Instead of saying “hi” like a normal person would (I assume…I don’t really know for sure…) I said “Do you want to meet your groomer?” and we looked down and Abby was playing with Theo. :) I got to meet his family. What a fun surprise.
Kevin said this is his BFF Theo he met two minutes ago. He’s kinda a lot, huh Theo?
NHS! Hi Friends!
Russ asked if Sirius was going to be there. As I was explaining how much <grief> they got online two years ago for bring at Pride and I would not blame them if…here they came around the corner! Sorry I doubted Friends <3 Good to see you!
Russell and Kevin
Russell, Blue, Abby and Kevin
Erika the Beautiful
Erika!
Erika kept Kevin cool and hydrated.
Russell, Blue and Kevin
One of my favorites! Just look at that bird!
Erika said it looked like she dragged her straight boyfriend to Pride. “In a weird way that’s good though, right?” I asked. “Yeah.”
Morgan was so sweet with Kevin. He is a keeper Erika-Freind.
Just look at this Poodle! All I did was put on a rainbow cat T!
We left when Kevin’s tongue was a half centimeter longer than THIS, about five minutes after this photo!
Happy Pride y’all <3