By Greg Flakus
New Orleans, LA
23 February 2006
 
watch Barkus Parade report

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras celebrations are underway in a city still reeling from Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding nearly six months ago. Most carnival parades feature large, elaborate floats carrying dozens of bead-tossing people dressed in costumes. But, as VOA's Greg Flakus reports from New Orleans, there is one parade that stays much closer to the ground. 

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New Orleans has been through a lot in recent months, but for a few hours during the Mardi Gras kick-off weekend, it really went to the dogs.

A New Orleans Barkus parade particiapnt  
  

This was the 14th annual Krewe of Barkus parade, featuring dogs and their owners dressed up for this year's theme -- "The Wizard of Paws. There is no Place Like Home," a reference to the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," that also plays on the effort people and their pets are making to return home -- to New Orleans.

Some dogs looked downright human and some humans looked a lot like dogs.

Political satire, of course, was part of the parade, even if some of it was lost on the canines.

Two canines dressed in Oz attire  
  
The parade of dogs was a welcome relief from the hard work of recovery for many people here. 

 
Virginia Blanc 
  
Virginia Blanc, her husband Charlie, and their two dogs, Sean and Koko, brought a mock-up of their house with its damaged roof covered by a blue tarpaulin. She says this parade means a lot to them.

"Well, it is a wonderful thing to do. We get to meet up with a lot of our neighborhood friends and friends from all over the city and some of us especially come to this parade, you know, fur-covered or not,” she says.  “We absolutely love coming to this, no matter where we are located, although we are in mid-city, generally under that tarp…"

"That is a FEMA tarp!" exclaims Charlie.

As the parade wound down, there was not a cat in sight, although at least one other animal [a rooster] snuck in somehow.

It's all part of what makes this city and its Mardi Gras something unique in America.