Dancing With The Paws: The HSSV Pooches Give Riverdance A Try.

Remember Micheal Flatley? Riverdance?

The chest, the makeup, oh my...

The Elvis costumes, the bare chest, the weird headband - how could we forget? While all of that might have gone the way of the mullet (leaving numerous Irish American children who had been forced into dance lessons breathing a collective sigh of relief), Irish dancing is still alive and well.

Which is a good thing as there's very limited ways for dogs to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. For obvious reasons, the whole green beer thing is out. 

Bad idea for pooches. And most people. 

Searching for four leaf clovers could be a valid alternative except for two things: Picking them without thumbs is very hard. And any that might happen to be in our dog park are likely to have a little dog wee on them. Ick. 

Those might have a little dog wee marinade on them...

So that brings us back to a good old green jigfest in the dog yard. Which our dogs do pretty much every day, the difference being that today we're dedicating it to Irish culture. 

Mirchi, despite being a breed of dog that hails from Mexico, kicked it off. He did super well on the two off the floor part of the jig thing but couldn't get the big smile down. We give him a six for effort and wearing a green collar. 

Check my flow...

We thought Stevie, whose scruff reminded us of Scotland, might do better. After all, it's still kind of Celtic right? He nailed the paw off the ground thing and killed it on the rakish facial expression. A solid eight. He's two points away from a headband, a bedazzler and a Broadway show. 

Why hello ladies ....

Next up was Otis. Who nailed it on the smiling but we could not, for the life of us, figure out what he was doing otherwise. 

Blllleeeeeaaaarrrrrgggghhhyyy!!

We'll make it a six to account for him being a big clumsy puppy who's 98% paws and ears right now. 

A six? Really? But I got some air....

Keep trying, big guy. You'll grow into those monster paws. You just need to watch the ears a little. 

Next up was Jeffrey. He was adopted shortly after this was taken but after Stevie's barnstorming performance we were holding out big hope for the scruffnugget contingent. 

Kiss me, I'm possibly part Scottish breed!

Again, a nice job on getting the paws up but the tongue kind of ruins it. You're trying too hard, Jeffrey. But a solid seven. 

I'm sorry but you need to sign my tour rider first...

Before the camera was even on, Alfie began making crazy, diva-ish demands. He wanted his own trailer with a white sofa (and that black fur? Eeeek), even special guacamole made from his own recipe. While we respect everyone for being a performer, we had to put the kibosh on that. 

With so many great contestants it was hard to pick one winner but we feel the paws down winner was....

Can I try the green beer now? Please??

Mr. Mustache. Was he the best dancer? Oh heck no. But for the love of all things good, LOOK at that face and those paws. You could overdose on the adorable. 

All this dancing was also in celebration of our Lucky 17 promotion. With a Friday the 13th and St. Patrick's Day falling so close to each other, some of our luckiest pooches (and cats and bunnies) are hoping to get lucky with an adoption fee of only $17! You can check out the lucky bunch here. 

Some of the staff dogs (and Mirchi) got a little jealous about all the fun so they decided to try out a group dance number complete with special leprechaun booties. While none of them did it particularly well, the result was an adorable train wreck too hysterical to be missed. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and your pets from all of us at Humane Society Silicon Valley. And if you want to help a shelter dog get lucky, you know where to find the best ones.