The Su-pawstar Parade Pooch

Every dog has its day. Andy sure did.

The fun-loving Old English sheepdog, loyal companion to Bellaire resident Billy Cohn and family, usually rides shotgun, his shaggy ears flapping in the breeze. But in Saturday’s Art Car Parade, he took to the wheel of a bright red BMW convertible, “driving” past adoring attendees like a boss. Not another soul in the car.

Throngs lining Houston’s streets went wild. 

What? Look! Is that a dog driving that car??!

All the while, Andy’s tail thumped back and forth, waving proudly like a patriotic flag. The King of Fluff staying the course. Tongue out. A good boy. A very good boy.

“Oh, he was into it! He loved it. His tail was wagging the whole time,” says Billy. The cardiothoracic surgeon, engineer, and prolific medical device inventor (widely recognized for his contributions to the development of the continuous-flow, totally implantable artificial heart), converted a 2004 BMW into a radio remote-controlled vehicle that one could steer and brake, and shift into park or drive, without being in it. 

Well, Andy was in it. Behind the wheel.

A convertible suits Andy. The wind in his hair. So. Much. Hair. 

Undeniably the cutest driver in the 38th annual Art Car Parade, the largest celebration of its kind in the world, featuring over 250 entries. 

Billy and Andy practiced a lot to make sure Andy would sit safely in the driver's seat. Here, Andy is all smiles in an empty church parking lot. (Photo courtesy of Billy Cohn)

“We practiced a lot with Andy so we could make sure he would sit in the car and not jump out. We went to an empty church parking lot at night and certain times of day when no one was there, me walking behind the car with the controls,” Billy explains. “Then we got bolder, and we’d leave the parking lot and drive him home on the streets of Bellaire, me walking behind the car. More and more I was comfortable that we would be good to go on Allen Parkway and downtown streets. There are so many things that could’ve gone wrong. But we prepared for so many exigencies. It could not have gone better.”

His youngest son Chris made a remote-control kill switch as a precaution.

“We put an emergency kill switch on a second radio so we had a second button he could push at any time if he thought the car was too close to something, or if for some reason I became inattentive. And we made a manual brake, a cable, from the back of the car that you could come up and grab and it would apply the brakes and stop the car instantly. With all those safeguards and all the practicing, we were good to go.”

The 4-year-old sheepdog was cordoned off from the backseat by a plexiglass partition, also designed by Chris. Little need. Andy appeared to enjoy being behind the wheel, says Billy. “Every once in a while, he’d go over to the passenger side and people were shouting and laughing and he’d stand up and wag his tail. I’d just say, ‘Come on, Andy! Behind the steering wheel!’ And he’d get back behind the steering wheel.”

The turns were the most exciting part, he says. “There aren’t many turns in the parade. I was so proud of navigating those just right, staying nice and parallel and making a nice right-angle turn.

“People would sometimes see me and point and say, ‘Hey, he’s making the car go! It’s him! Over there!’” says Billy, whose sons Billy and Robert and daughter Elizabeth followed along behind the car with him and Chris. Billy’s wife Shaun was also on hand, helping with logistics and getting water for the dog, he says. 

Inventor, cardiothoracic surgeon, and engineer Billy Cohn says his favorite thing to do is ride around in his car with Andy, who usually rides shotgun. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

It’s a wonder Billy made it to the parade at all. He was in Australia for “artificial heart work,” and didn’t make it home till the wee hours on Saturday, thanks to a plane snafu (he suspects mechanical problems) that left him struggling to get back to Houston. He found another flight in the nick of time. Got in at 1:30 a.m., the day of the parade.

Thanks to a trial-run of the course by Shaun and Chris while he was away, they discovered more work had to be done to make Andy’s ride flawless.

“Chris and Shaun drove the course while I was in Australia to see how long it was, and if there were any steep hills. Turns out there were two. So, at 3 a.m., now back in Houston, I woke up Chris and we drove the course, realizing, indeed, we can’t make it up these hills. We had to make this Lucite fixture with a turnbuckle so I could set the RPMs just how I wanted them on the gas pedal. It made it possible to get up those hills. 

“It was a family jam,” he says of the all-out effort. His son Billy helped him work on and test the emergency brake cable as well as design Run-Over-Cat stickers for the car with his brothers Robert and Chris. (Side note: Andy doesn’t really hate cats. He’s a lover, not a hater.)

For months, Billy Cohn had been working with his car and with Andy in hopes of his friendly Sheepdog rolling down Allen Parkway in the driver's seat. Mission accomplished. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

“We did a lot of work, but Andy was the star of the show. He was such a good boy, just sitting behind the wheel like a gentleman,” says Billy.

Indeed, Andy earned a trophy for his paw-some parade appearance. “We won the Bowl Me Over award at the Art Car Parade’s award’s ceremony. He’s such a social and gregarious dog, so he loved getting all the hugs and pets. He was really into it. He earned it.”

Editor's note: Read more about Billy in Magic, Music, Medicine, More: And this inventor’s ‘humerus’ Halloween by Cathy Gordon, Oct. 2024