When Dani Pollen, a second-grader at McKinley Elementary School in San Francisco, walked the red carpet with her dog, Zuzu, at Duboce Park on Saturday, the crowd went wild.
Dani, dressed in her soccer uniform, juggled a ball with her knees as 2-year-old Zuzu strutted around in her pink axolotl salamander costume, pulling on her leash to greet the onlookers sitting on the ground surrounding the red carpet. Dani’s fellow elementary schoolers shrieked with delight, cheering on the small doodle mix, who doubled as the mascot for their soccer team, the Attacking Axolotls.
Dani and Zuzu were entrants in the best costume portion of the 19th annual DogFest, a fundraiser for McKinley Elementary. In addition to the best costume competition, the dog show included several other categories as well, including best coat, best trick, best mutt and best lap dog. Between contests, the thousands of attendees could shop at several canine-focused booths or rack up tickets playing carnival games to get a prize…