Sadly, I live in Oklahoma, where we don't do Mardi Gras. Only in the past couple of years can we even find King Cakes in a few bakeries.
That doesn't stop me from dreaming about forming a new Krewe.
So, introducing Krewe do Zuiex - For all pet animals, from the exotic to the quixotic: ferrets, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, dogs, birds, cats, even fish are welcome to parade with us!
The idea is that all pets are welcome to parade and all pet owners are welcome to join the Krewe.
Many Krewes exist to support a charity, and because we are all intimiately familiar with Itzl as a service dog, we want the charity funds (assuming we have any) to go to programs which help people get service animals. All service animals deserve support, and people who need service animals really need them. I haven't found many charities that offer ongoing support to low-income disabled people - the very ones who need service animals but can't afford the ongoing care for them - vet bills, food, service vests, patches, and harnesses, toys, play dates, that sort of thing. I know there are many wonderful charities that provide service animals, and provide follow-up training, but I haven't heard if any that also provide support for routine care, like food and such. There are vets who offer low-cost, discounted, and sometimes even free health care to service animals, and there is insurance service animal handlers can purchase, but how many know of these? If we can't find a charity that does these things, perhaps the Krewe could be that charity.
So, we're looking around for a variety of service animal organizations to whom we may donate when we reach the stage of having funds to donate.
That made it easy to decide which animals would be able to join the Royal Court. Service animals, of course! Any and all service animals are welcome to join Krewe do Zieux with their human partners and parade in it as part of the Royal Court. The King and Queen of the Krewe do Zieux would be chosen from among the Royal Court. Pet dogs would be parading in support - and all dogs would be encouraged to be in costumes or part of human-powered floats (wagons, crates on wheels, wheelbarrows...). Handlers for service animals could choose to have their animal in their service gear or in costume - or a combination of both!
We'd have a Pawty in the Park with pet and people food, music, the Royal Pawvilion for the Royal Court, booths with information on service animals, pet supplies and such, animal rescues, and pet care information - including vets, stuff like that.
And we think even pet fish and small rodents and tiny lizards have a right to march in this parade and be a part of this Krewe. Recognizing that small critters are best displayed in public in cages or aquariums, we would relax the one human escort/one animal rule and permit more than one small creature in the container. Aquariums might be an interesting part of the parade, don't you think?
There's still a lot of detail to work out, and my long, long ago association with the Krewe of Bacchus (the year Bob Hope was King of the Krewe of Bacchus, that's how long ago) leaves me with only vague memories of the structure of operating a Krewe year round.
We named it "Krewe" because that's the traditional spelling in New Orleans for such an organization, "do" because we're doing it, and "zieux" because that's a American faux-Frenchified way of saying it's all about the critters.
It could be fun. Itzl would love having another event on our calendar.