The Launch Party - Was Great!

The launch party for the Cats & Dogs of Charlotte magazine has come and gone. We celebrated on Thursday, May 18th. I was pretty nervous. You never know if people will show up or not. Well, they did! The weather was absolutely bizarre. The clouds started rolling in, and the wind started whipping around but everything kind of held together. People started showing up at MetroPaws at 6 pm and all of a sudden we had a party! Dogs galore arrived, even though we had asked people to RSVP if they were bringing their dogs. But it all worked out. The dogs were well behaved and so were their people!

The guests were given programs and self-tour maps of MetroPaws, which includes doggie day care, boarding, grooming and a retail store. The musicians started playing and I was hoping to have people dancing, but they were immediately asked to turn down the volume so as not to upset the dogs. Yikes! The dogs had taken over. We had a bunch of activities scheduled for outside, including agility demonstrations, Frisbee demonstrations, guard dog and obedience demonstrations. We ended up doing the Frisbee demonstration inside because it started pouring outside. It actually was better because everybody gathered around and enjoyed it as a group. The food was sponsored by Costco and the wine was provided by Ararat Wine Distributors.

A girl scout troop showed up also. The girls had their badge sashes on, bursting with honor badges. One of the girls had written an article for the magazine, which she gave me.

Around 7:45 p.m. someone said, "The Mayor is here", but I couldn't see him anywhere so I thought I had imagined it. Then I looked around again, and he was there! No entourage, no friends, he just decided to pop by and surprise us! Now, I won't get into politics, like ever, but I will tell you that he's a very nice, down to earth, go with the flow kind of guy, and pretty darn funny. It was great that he joined us. He really is a big dog lover and that's what mattered to our crowd!

The MetroPaws employees worked their butts off to make this party happen. They had wonderful attitudes and I think they enjoyed showing off their new business to people who hadn't been there before. Carol and Andy, the owners, were happy with the turnout. If you're reading this blog and haven't been to MetroPaws, check it out. 2029 South Tryon.

My parents were in town visiting and they got to meet some of my friends. They also helped me out tremendously in preparing for the party. Why is it I always think I can do everything on my own?

What was missing from the party? A. Press. I'll never understand how they choose what to cover. B. Cats. Because there's no way I'm bringing cats into a situation like that. C. Some of my networking buddies. I'm a member of at least 6 networking groups and very few of my contacts showed up. This is not a complaint, you just always wonder what could I have done differently to bring those people in. And the bottom line was, we probably had over 300 people (and 100 dogs) so of course ultimately it all worked out. I just missed seeing some of my buddies, and they missed out on a GREAT party!

By the way, you can view more great photos by Ron Deshaies of the party at www.treasuredeventsofcharlotte.com. Go to Calendar, go to May 2006, and look for Cats & Dogs of Charlotte.

Kisses!

Until next time, I remain, Sara Abrams, your friendly publisher. Please send emails with photos of your pets! But only Cats & Dogs.