A night for lovers & pet lovers
Furry guests were treated like royalty along with their owners as dogs walked the red carpet and mingled with celebrity supporters of The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) at the organization’s star-studded charity dinner, “Dine with PAWS,†held at the Venice Piazza.
As Vodka, my Bichon Frise date for the evening got to the door, she was given a pearl necklace. The male doggies got bowties.
The spread for Vodka and her doggie friends that night was more than she had ever dreamed of. There were liver cakes with cream cheese and carob veggie frosting, salmon muffins, Smokehouse duck chips, Merrick Wilderness Blend Five-Star entrée, and turmeric and honey biscuits were part of the proudly “all-natural and organic†pet buffet table jointly laid out by Bow&Wow and Whole Pet Kitchen. An amazing array of mouth-watering pet desserts by Swell Sweets was also a big hit.
I had my fill of human food at Amici, The Red Crab and Marciano’s tables.
Opening the main program was Talentadong Pinoy champion Chardy Ang and his talented Border Collie, Cheska with their unique version of the pasa doble with the Speed Dancers
Asia’s Next Top Model host and PAWS volunteer Joey Mead hosted the program and could not hide her excitement as the new PAWS adoption campaign was unveiled with no less than megastar Sharon Cuneta as the organization’s newest spokesperson.
Sharon had recently adopted a rescued dog from the PAWS shelter. In her video message, she encouraged everyone to, “help PAWS by either donating or adopting a rescued animal.†Unknown to many, the megastar sponsors, several special-needs dogs at the PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center and regularly visits the facility after office hours, often chatting with staff members and volunteers as she checks on the animals being cared for by the facility.
Spotted in the audience happily applauding this new campaign were model siblings Daniel and Vanessa Matsunaga, Patricia Hizon, Christian Bautista, radio jock DJ Carla D and the most photographed couple of the night, Heart Evangelista and Sen. Chiz Escudero.
Past PAWS awardees, Karylle, Pia Guanio and Regine Tolentino were also present to award this year’s batch of Golden Heart and Order of the Platinum Paw awardees.
Co-presented by Venice Piazza and Bow & Wow, “Dine with PAWS†honored individuals and companies who helped PAWS further the cause of animal welfare in the Philippines. Special citations were given to the 11 CIDG-QC police officers, and Laguna prosecutors Gamaliel “Gamby†Bello and John-John Cabral who were responsible for the arrest and prosecution of the Korean dog-fight syndicate in San Pablo, Laguna last March 2012.
The PAWS Golden Heart Award was given out to Bow and Wow for helping promote spay-neuter of pets and for raising funds for PAWS, the Lance Askgaard Foundation for funding PAWS’ City Pound Reformation (CPR) project, SJ Vets for helping PAWS in its provincial spay-neuter outreach programs for indigent pet owners, Congresswoman Bernadette Herrera-Dy of the Bagong Henerasyon Party List for authoring House Bill 5849 or the amendment of the Animal Welfare Act and consistently lobbying for animal welfare in Congress, TV and radio personalities Sheryl Crystal and Patricia Hizon for hosting PAWS charity events for the past 10 years and actress Carla Abellana for raising awareness about PAWS’ Dr. Dog Program.
Happy guests went home with doggie bags filled with treats from Bow and Wow, KitKat and ArtKits. Other sponsors for the event were McDonald’s, Thousand Teas, Maynilad and Planet Grapes.
