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New York shelter hosts 'puppy parade' with dogs in Mets jerseys

A group of volunteers at a local animal shelter hosted the first ever World Series Puppy Parade, featuring rescue dogs dressed up in New York Mets attire.

The Mets are in the World Series for the first time in fifteen years, and even the dogs of New York City are walking around in Mets gear. 

On the morning of Game 1, a group of volunteers and activists organized the first World Series Puppy Parade at Shelter Chic, a non-profit dog shelter in Lower Manhattan. Led by JeanShafiroff, an animal rights activist and longtime Mets fan, the volunteers brought in rescue dogs, dressed them up in orange and blue and walked them through the streets of New York in hopes of finding them owners.

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For about an hour, the dogs walked up and down Chambers Street and Broadway in Manhattan'sTribecaneighborhood, accompanied by the volunteers and members of the Suffolk County SPCA. Each dog was outfitted with a different type of Mets apparel, from orange tutus to jerseys, and nearly all of them were up for adoption.

“On a day like today, the animals are forgotten, because everyone's thinking about the series,” Shafiroff said. “We're expecting 20% fewer adoptions today, so we came up with the idea to have a parade to honor the Mets and show off our little dogs.”

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Rescue Dogs Rock NYC, a charitable organization that brings in dogs from shelters around the New York area, provided all of the dogs for the parade. The organization has saved more than a thousand dogs in the eight months since it was founded, and specializes in pit bulls, a breed that Shafiroff believes get a bad rap.

“There are no bad dogs, there are just bad owners,” she said. “All the stories you hear about pit bulls, it's the owners, and what the owners want them to do.”

Several pit bulls marched in the parade, including Maui, seen below in a customized Mets jersey.

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Among the volunteers was Lily Morton, who recently completed the process of adopting her foster dog, Henry (shown below). She's secretly a Red Sox fan, but she dressed her new pet up in Mets apparel anyway (and probably tried her hardest to block out memories of Bill Buckner and the 1986 World Series).

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Jackie O'Sullivan, another volunteer, paraded Dolly, a two-year-old Boxer mix who sported an orange Mets tutu. O'Sullivan is Dolly's foster parent and is currently looking to find her a permanent home.

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As an added bonus, the organizers promised that if a dog was adopted during the parade, the new owner would get to take the Mets gear home with them, too.

“We love the Mets, so we're thrilled to be a part of this exciting occasion,” said Stacey Silverstein, founder of Rescue Dogs Rock NYC. “We're very excited for our team, and so are the dogs!”