In Key West, New Year’s Eve means a dog parade of dachshunds — all decked out

Before the drag queen in the giant red shoe drops on Duval Street to ring in the new year in Key West every Dec. 31, a squadron of small dogs hits the street for their annual parade.

And the dogs dress in costumes.

No, really.

The 15th annual Dachshund Parade hit the pavement downtown on Tuesday afternoon, with about 300 dogs and their owners taking part, organizers said.

The G-rated event is only three blocks long to accommodate the dachshunds’ famously short legs.

It always draws a respectable crowd hours before the rowdier New Year’s Eve events in Key West begin.

Standouts included Huey the dachshund who arrived as the Red Baron, the nickname of World War I ace fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, in a replica red plane made to fit the small canine.

Of course, there were the traditional dachshunds dressed as hot dogs inside buns.

But there was also a pink flamingo costume, a hula dancer and Tank, a canine who lives at a local gym, who dressed as a rock star, complete with a spiked collar.

Key West’s New Year’s Eve “drops” were to include drag queen Sushi, perched in the super-sized high-heeled shoe outside the Bourbon Pub on Duval Street; the lowering of a gigantic manmade conch shell at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, also on Duval; and the descent of a “pirate wench” atop a tall ship’s mast at Schooner Wharf Bar at the Key West Historic Seaport.

This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 6:26 PM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.