Updates from June – Part 3
July 16, 2012
(Photo above not mine / Courtesy of Bow & Wow)
Capping off the month of June for PPBD was the Bow & Wow Benefit Dinner for C.A.R.A. (Compassion and Responsibility for Animals) Welfare Philippines held at The Rockwell Tent in Makati.
Everyone who graced the event, whether human or canine, celebrities and non-celebrities alike, came dressed in their best and dressed to impress! Hosted by socialite philanthropist Tessa Prieto-Valdez, the dinner featured a delectable buffet by Margarita Fores’ Cibo / Cibo di M, organic wines by Healthy Options and Wine Story, and a drool-worthy doggie buffet spread for furry guests by Bow & Wow plus dog-friendly desserts by Swell Sweets. My husband (who was my date-slash-assistant for the night, haha!) and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, especially coz this was our first time to literally “wine & dine” with hundreds of other pet-parents and their dogs.
What I personally loved most about that night though, aside from meeting so many wonderful dogs, was being able to meet, listen to, and converse a bit with the heart and soul of C.A.R.A., Ms. Nancy Cu-Unjieng.
As she spoke that night on stage about the state of animal welfare in our country and the work C.A.R.A. has been doing for the past 7 years, every now and then my eyes would well up with tears. Clearly it was a touching speech, but made more so by the person who delivered it. You cannot fake that sort of passion and compassion; I could tell hers was genuine through and through. I’m certain everyone in the crowd felt it too.
C.A.R.A. currently cares for hundreds of rescued dogs and cats that are fostered by volunteers in their own homes until the time they get adopted. I met one of their rescues that night — a puppy mill dog named Cooper, in the photo below with his awesome foster mom and animal advocate Li-an Ascalon. Despite being rejected and abandoned, Cooper that night seemed like the gentlest and sweetest little pup ever!!! If we didn’t already have 2 pets of our own and 4 other fosters at home, my husband and I would’ve probably adopted him right there and then!
A whopping P550,000 was raised for C.A.R.A. that night – P450,000 from ticket sales plus a pledge of an additional P100,000 from Healthy Options Group of Companies top executives, Romy Sia and Christian Tan. (So cool!!!) The funds will be used for C.A.R.A.’s recent undertaking called “Save the Laguna Pitbulls”, a rehabilitation project for more than 200 pit bulls rescued from a cruel dog-fighting syndicate in Laguna run by Korean nationals. (So NOT cool!!!)
Would you like to help? For more info on C.A.R.A., click on this link.
Updates from June, Part 2 Updates from June, Part 1Updates from June – Part 2
July 15, 2012
BOW & WOW NEXT PET MODEL
I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Bow & Wow last month on the “Bow & Wow Next Pet Model” contest, a fund-raising project for The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (P.A.W.S.).
(Photo above courtesy of Bow & Wow)
Basically, my job was to photograph the top 12 pet finalists (6 cats and 6 dogs with the most online votes) “modeling” to three themes – Play & Exercise, Nutrition, and Grooming. The venue decided on was Greenbelt 5. Because I had to work with each of the models individually, we spread out the photo shoot to three afternoons — three afternoons of unpredictable weather, I might add! But the rain always had a way of stopping right in time for the shoot. Thank God! Here are just some of the final photos, shown in no particular order:
All 12 finalists – Chanel, Cody, Dwight, Ivo, Khatie, Mindy, Oreo, P. Mach, Poypoy, Shaun, Siomai and Zorro – were a joy to work with and all of them were awesome in their own way. Equally awesome were all the pet parents who came out that day!
Good job everyone! You really all did sooo well!
Congratulations to the top 2 finalists, Bow & Wow’s Next Pet Models – Mindy the beautiful Golden Retriever and Khatie the adorable Persian-Puspin mix!
(Be sure to catch Mindy and Khatie on the cover of The Bow & Wow Times, Bow & Wow’s quarterly magazine which will be coming out soon. I’ll do a feature on that too in a succeeding post once the magazine comes out! So excited! It’s gonna be sooo cute!)
Oh! I must congratulate and thank the Bow & Wow team too! Thank you guys! It was a pleasure working with you. Special shout out to Lou Bootan and to the staff of Bow & Wow’s branch at Greenbelt 5. You guys rock!
For more info on P.A.W.S., click on this link.
(Part 3 of “Updates from June”, continued in next post…)
Updates from June
July 14, 2012
Hello there! I just realized that the whole month of June has gone by without a single entry on this blog. Eek!!! Thankfully, while this tiny corner of the blogoshpere has been sad and dormant, for PPBD and me, this past month has been anything but! In this post and in the two succeeding ones, I’ll be giving you a run-down of the month of June…
BACK-TO-SCHOOL
June is always a pretty big month for Pinoy moms as we transition our kids from summer vacation mode to back-to-school mode. Wait, who am I kidding? We moms transition ourselves too, don’t we? (long silence / crickets chirping) Okay fine, maybe it’s just me then? Seriously though, we’ve got all these last-minute end-of-summer activities we wanna do, school supplies shopping to complete, and proper sleeping schedules to get used to again. (Yes, yes, I’m pretty lax when it comes to sleep schedules during the summer! Tsk, tsk, tsk… Baaad!) Then there’s me getting used to waking up extra early again to cook and pack my kid’s “baon” for school. (Hehe! I’m sooo not a morning person, you see.) Aaah… then there’s the annoying June bug! Every year, within the first two weeks of school, which is also when the rainy season begins, one of us gets sick. This year, it was Franco… again. So yeah, for a mommy, on a mental and emotional and logistical level, there’s much going on come June. Oh did I mention Franco is now in 3rd Grade? 3rd Grade!!! Yikes! Where did the time go?
NEW PROJECT
I’ve also been working on a new project, a collaboration of sorts, which has kept my mind and my heart pretty preoccupied this past month. It’ll launch soon, hopefully before the end of the year. Till then it’s hush hush. So stay tuned!
HOORAY FOR EDWARD
As for PPBD, we hit a milestone this past month. One of my very special photos of Edward, our quirky dog and one of the inspirations behind PPBD, got commercially licensed by a greeting card company in the U.S. Yay!!! The card will retail worldwide in time for Valentines Day 2013. So, hooray for Edward! And hooray for PPBD! And hooray for our good God who made this all possible!
(Part 2 of “Updates from June”, continued in next post…)
