Lead the parade with your pet

The Santa Fe animal shelter is urging families with pets adopted from the shelter to join them in this year’s Children’s Pet Parade.

The shelter will once again take the lead as the grand marshal of Desfile de Los Niños, one of the most popular and well-attended events of the Santa Fe Fiesta. The parade is set this year for Saturday, Sept. 10.

Those wishing to join the shelter and its volunteers are asked to gather by 7:45 a.m. at the parade staging area at the New Mexico School for the Arts, 275 E. Alameda St. The parade, which is free to all participants, starts at 9 a.m. For more information, contact Devin White at dwhite@sfhumanesociety.org.

The hour-long parade, which began in the early 1920s, features hundreds of children and their families in costumes who participate in the parade, along with thousands of supporters lining the route. The event ends with an awards ceremony on the Plaza.