Wine for Feral Felines

Now that I've got your attention...last night I got suckered into volunteering at the wine booth at Speed Street for the Friends of Feral Felines. A percentage of the proceeds went to that organization. It was hot and humid and a whole lot of fun. My friend Alan Hersh came, and we met and became friends with Maureen, Emily and Laura who also worked the booth. (That's us in one of the photos.) People were on their best behaviour, but, as you can see in one of the crowd photos, drinking a lot!!!!! I'm not into crowded places, so I never would have experienced this if we hadn't decided to help the kitty organization. If you want to find out more about the good work they do, check out: www.friendsofferalfelines.org

And I forgot to mention about American Idol, PRINCE! Was that not a coup! I couldn't believe it when he walked on stage. Hasn't aged. Still got it. Best moment of the show.

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

Taylor Won! And Charlie Needs a Home...

Okay, okay, American Idol is finished. I can breathe until next year. Go Taylor!

Just getting over the excitement of the launch party and having family in town. I've attached a photo of my nephew at the Raptor Center. Just as a coincidence, I met the director of the Raptor Center at a networking luncheon, so I got to tell him how much we enjoyed it. If you haven't been - it's just like taking a walk in the woods but you suddenly come upon a cage with an owl, or a vulture. And they have bald eagles too. Those guys are a lot bigger than I imagined!

I'm also attaching a Boxer (I think) and a shaved Maltese. They were both at the groomers, "Dog's Day Out" when I stopped by to say hi. I've never seen a Maltese without its hair! So small.

And now for the most important part of this blog - Meet Charlie. Charlie is a Doodle of some kind who was found with a crushed foot. Dr. Marty Davis, the Saint, has been caring for Charlie (in photo). His back paw is gone and she's hoping to save the leg but the infection is in the leg. Charlie is a dear. If anyone can provide a good home for him and the medical care he'll need, please be in touch!

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

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.

Look at Me, Blogging Away

I'm still a-blogging, and no one's a-reading! That's fine. I'll just entertain myself. I'm posting a photo of Vanessa and her dog Courtney. We did a little photo shoot for them for an ad she'll be running in the next Cats & Dogs. This isn't a photo she's using, but I love it.

The weather continues to be absolutely gorgeous! Breezy and sunny. Perfect exercise weather. (I have to hurry this up. Can't miss The Sopranos, although I must say, where the hell are they going with these scattered storylines???) I went by MetroPaws yesterday and ended up helping them a bit. That's the doggie day care where we're going to have the launch party. They're setting up their retail store. It's going to be awesome! The owners don't do anything unless it's on a grand scale!

Getting nervous about the party. What if, what if. But the owners and I agree, that no matter what happens, we're going to have a good time. If you're reading this and you're coming - bring your dancing shoes! The d.j. flaked on me but we've got a great musician, Jes Seda, and his partner Sherry. Gonna be big fun!

Okay, I think I've used enough exclamation marks for one entry. I forgot to mention, with all our good weather, they had a tornado a few miles north of Charlotte. Oy vey. A little un-nerving.

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

Chris Got Voted Off!

As some of you may, or may not know, I'm a huge American Idol fan (Fantasia, if you're reading this - call me. I need you for a cover.) Anyway, Chris got voted off last night! It was so much fun to see the reactions on the faces of the other contestants and Paula Abdul losing it. I mean, I don't really care, but I do, kind of. How goofy. I just thought Chris was going to win. He'll be fine. My two guilty pleasures are watching American Idol and the Sopranos. I used to watch copious amounts of t.v., but there's no time for that right now.

Less than a week to the Cats & Dogs of Charlotte launch party! I'm attaching some photos from MetroPaws where they've been sprucing up before the big day. We're all excited. And add to that that my parents, sister and nephew will be in town, so it will be quite a celebration.

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

Toto

I photographed a Carin Terrier today named Bailey. She's the dog that Dorothy had in Wizard of Oz (Toto), but her fur is sandy haired instead of dark. I couldn't resist, so I'm putting up her photo. And I'm adding photos of her girls, Rachel and Shelby. Bailey seems very connected to them!

Working hard with arrangements for the launch party next Thursday. I think it's going to be a big hit. A lot of people have said they're coming. Should I have name tags? Last time it helped people introduce themselves. Maybe I should do something cutesy like your name and your pet's name. Yeah... Genius at work.

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

Saturday Night

The weather's been so nice. No bugs yet. I think we have a lot of frogs in the back yards. They're making a bunch of noise, but it's not a "rib bit, rib bit" kind of thing. It's damn loud! I wish we could walk along the greenway at night to experience nature under the moonlight. In a perfect world you could, but it's just too dangerous.

I met some girlfriends for Cinco de Mayo on Friday, but it was a little un-nerving. We went to Cantina on East and they had closed down the parking lot in order to sell lots of beer and there was a band also. That sucked since parking's a pain in Dilworth anyway. And then it had been a really stormy day and it began to rain again. We ended up at Moe's and had a good time, and paid a whole lot less for our Coronas.

For some reason I'm kind of missing Los Angeles. I hope I can go back to do a Cats & Dogs magazine over there. That would be amazing. My friend and former boss Michael wants his dog in my Los Angeles version. Then he started talking about making it a magazine for "breeds" and I didn't have the heart to tell him that that was not where I was headed. Ever!

Speaking of non-breeds, the little black dog in the photos is the daughter of Buddy Simon, who owns a jewelry store in Charlotte called Karat Patch. "Tookie" is 16 1/2 years old, deaf and blind, but still going strong. She's on a special diet and has had numerous surgeries, but she still comes to work every day with Dad and has become the store mascot. Customers ask for her. She even has her own business card with "Director of Barketing" on it.

I also posted some photos from Alan Hersh's house warming. We dedicated the house with a Mezuzah ceremony and lots of good food!

Today we did a photo shoot of Michael Owens, his two daughters and their two cats. The cats were not too cooperative, but I think we got some good shots. Donna Foster was brave enough to go with me and did the photography.

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