PAWS Petchitecture 2009

So last Fri night I was honored to be one of the very few selected photographers to roam around and shoot candids at the Petchitecture event for PAWS. I had been really looking forward to this event because it was voted the best pet event of San Francisco!! What's great about PAWS is that it's an organization that helps make sure pets stay with their people - and that they're cared for. ...I also learned that I have been spelling and pronouncing this event wrong for 3 years. It's not Petitecture (my way), but PetCHItecture (real way). Ooops! In short, the event was AMAZING... Just imagine - Fancy pants Fairmont Hotel in SF, 2 floors of party space, 700 guests and 300 dogs (most of them dressed up I might add), a couple cats, a bunny, a macaw and 1 chicken. How much better could it get?! They had a silent auction, live auction, yummy dinner buffet and an awesome pet habitat exhibition (habitats were designed by top architects and designers). How cool! They also put on a little video featuring some of the people and pets that PAWS has helped and it was a total tearjerker (in a happy way)... I was hiding behind my cam...!! Check out some of my favorite photos! This is the beautiful Grand Ballroom. This is where they had the silent and live auctions, dinner, and photos with your pet (in the back)! Here's a couple shots of some of the awesome silent auction items... they seriously had everything from a 20+ ft. table of wines, to jewelry and stuff for humans, a bunch of pet-baskets, pet services and more... I've seen alot of silent auctions but I have to say this one was by far the biggest! This is a very interesting looking pet lounge. Imagine what it smelled like when the birds came out! Yum!! Here's some of the habitats: Now onto some doggies! What's a party without cupcakes?! I believe there were 4 different kinds of cupcakes... here I'm only showing you the chocolate. I think that's a chocolate covered espresso bean on top. I was really upset I didn't get to try one of these cupcakes, I was eyeballing them all night and when I finally stopped taking pics I went back to the cupcake table and they were gone. 🙁 Here are some of the people who brought this event to life. From L-R, SF's favorite movie critic Jan Wahl, President of PAWS John Lipp and legendary performer Connie Champagne Everyone had such a great time (including myself). Thank you PAWS for inviting me to shoot this event, it was amazing!! With that, I leave you this.