Have you been to a pet luau?

The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) together with sponsors and supporters Eastwood City, Pedigree, Cesar, Big Kahuna Bar and Grill, Samson & Mom, Frontline Plus, Yo Card, and The Philippine STAR Petlife to name a few, put together the Chillin’ Pet Luau for pet-owners, friends, and animal-lovers at the Eastwood Central Plaza.

It was an evening of fur and fun as pet-lovers and friends came in droves to support PAWS in their latest event to raise funds for the PAWS animal shelter and the various programs of the organization. “The PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center (PARC) is the first real animal shelter in the country,” Anna Cabrera, PAWS program director shares, “and we are always looking for fun ways to raise funds for the shelter as well as raise awareness among animal lovers that there are many dogs out there in need of good homes and loving families. We want to mount events that are not only fun and exciting but are informative and poignant at the same time. And if, through these endeavors, some of our shelter animals find loving homes too than that’s just the icing on the cake!”

Indeed, PAWS has been known to have events that bring together dogs and their owners for afternoons and evenings of fun and frolic such as their “Scaredy Cats and Dogs” Halloween event last October or their “Dine with PAWS” black-tie dinner event last year. All the proceeds from these events go to PARC to help the shelter in its day-to-day operations in caring for abandoned animals. “At PARC, we provide a safe environment for animals who have been abandoned, beaten, or rescued and we nurse them back to health until they are viable for adoption. At that point, we try to find them loving homes,” Rich Ilustre, PAWS director shares. “We run mainly on the kindness of volunteers and donations so we really enjoy being able to have events that are not only fun for our supporters but help raise funds at the same time.”

The latest of these events was the Pet Luau at Eastwood City. Dogs and their owners were invited to come in funky loud Hawaiian outfits to enjoy an evening of games, good food and good company. I arrived with my husband and our whole family (both humans and dogs) and was excited to be able to give our two babies (our Pug Sebastian and our Chihuahua London) the opportunity to socialize with other humans and animals. It was an incredible sight! The entire Eastwood Central Plaza was transformed into a Hawaiian wonderland.  Decorations were as far as the eye could see and among the food and the stage were also fun booths set up for the guests’ enjoyment including a funky bead-making booth and a booth selling adorable clothes for dogs. Needless to say, we were very excited!

As we entered we were given multi-colored leis (for us and our dogs) and were seated in the colorful dining room where we immediately ran into several friends and their dogs. Spotted among the supporters present were JM Rodriguez and his dog Cracker, Rachel Alejandro and Philip Palma and their dog Gavin, Brian Banta and Barni Alejandro and their dog Sawyer, Pia Guanio and her dog Snoop, Aliya Parcs — who sang to the delight of the guests — and her dog Holiday, and Jan Isaac and her dog Sage just to name a few.

As soon as people began settling in, the “people buffet” opened. Provided for free by Big Kahuna Bar and Grill and Seafood Island the buffet was a mouth-watering bevy of delicious island-themed food and cold drinks. The dogs played and ran around while their human counterparts enjoyed dinner. Not long after, the “pet buffet” was opened. Sponsored by Pedigree and Cesar, the pet buffet was just as awe-inspiring as its human counterpart. An assortment of kibble, dog treats, sweets and Cesar were available as well as mini burgers, sugarless donuts, cheese cubes, banana cakes, liver cookies, and herbed fish loaves prepared by PAWS volunteer Dr. Marga Carpio of Vets in Practice. It was almost sensory overload and pet owners only needed to grab a dog dish and fill it up! Between Nino and I, our pets London and Sebastian ate to their heart’s content and lapped up bowls and bowls of water since they kept running around with their new friends.

As dinner was ending, the program began. Fun games and prizes started the night off with an exciting version of pet-and-owner Limbo Rock where owners had to limbo while holding onto their pets at the same time. Prizes were also given out for Best Dressed which included Jan Isaac and her retriever Sage who wore a shirt matching her Hawaiian print dress. After the games wrapped up, PAWS brought out four of their shelter dogs up for adoption to meet the guests. The first was Chubby, who was abandoned at the shelter when his owner left for abroad, followed by Emil who was rescued from dog meat traders. Third was Peter who was about to be sold to neighborhood drunkards for pulutan until he was rescued by a journalist. And finally finishing off the presentation was adorable puppy Harry who was abandoned at the shelter because he had a club foot. Two days before the luau, PAWS brought the frightened puppy to Dr. Nielsen Donato of Vets in Practice who corrected the foot with surgery. Though he sported a bandage to the event, Harry will be back to normal and able to walk fine when the bandage comes off in two months!

It was heartwarming indeed to see these shelter dogs, once so scared and confused, now happy and healthy and playful and hopefully soon with good families of their very own. To follow up the presentation of the shelter dogs, PAWS showed an audio visual presentation to highlight their programs for the year and show the recent developments and improvements to their PARC facility made possible by funds raised from their previous events. Cats were seen lounging on the shelves of the new cattery as well as the new shelves in the quarantine making it possible to service and house more animals.

It was an amazing night and an incredible show and, to cap off the evening, PAWS awarded celebrity Pia Guanio with the The Order of the Platinum Paw award for her tireless support and contributions to the fundraising and advocacy efforts of PAWS. She raised the most funds for the PAWS shelter by naming them beneficiaries on game shows such as P1MM, K Challenge and Celebrity Poker, and not only that, she was always in attendance at all the PAWS events. Truly, Pia is a friend and supporter of animals and their plight!

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For more info, contact PAWS Animal shelter at 475-1688.