Strange sounds emit from my roommate’s room on a near daily basis. Not sex noises. Not holy-hell-I-just-saw-a-cockroach noises. At first I thought they were the sounds of pain or sadness. Thinking my roommate had hurt herself, or learned some very bad news, I come rushing to her door, “Are you okay?”
I find her hunched over her laptop, her face awash with unabashed joy, a stark contrast to her utterances.
“Ohh!” she squeals, “I can’t! Eee! Just-aaaww!- Just look!”
She turns the screen toward me, clapping her hands, to reveal a Youtube page. It is a video of some adorable animal- most often a dog or puppy, yesterday it was a fox, last spring it was cows- doing something cute.

“Cute.” I reply, deadpan, rolling my eyes at the 3 minutes of life I just wasted.

I like dogs just fine.

I also like vegetables.

I am about as likely to squee about a puppy as an eggplant.

Now, dress either one up in a costume and it’s a different story.

Case in point: the Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade. As soon as I heard about this New York event, now in its 23rd year, I knew I had to go. I knew I had to go with my roommate, knew she would have a blast. What I didn’t know is how much I’d enjoy it.

How could I not? It was a beautiful sunny day, so festive, everyone was smiling. The creativity and thought put into all of the costumes was awesome.

It gets even better when owners dress up to match.

So much fun, my roommate and I left truly inspired. For Halloween this year my two roommates and I dressed as Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, and Captain Hook. We dressed our cat as the crocodile.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! What did you dress as? Ever dress up your pet?