Puppy Love

On behalf of the Arizona strays who are taken care of by Friends for Life, thanks for the moolah.

The auction was on Saturday night and it was amaz-za-zing. (Benchwarmers reference, anyone? Am I the only one to latch onto stupid movie quotes?)

Anyway, we fell just short of our $45,000 goal after expenses, but hopefully with the donations that were sent in that week to the PO Box, which have yet to be tallied, we will have made our goal. In the meantime, here are the almost final numbers:
$41,500 - amount raised!
$600 - final winning bid for a custom made dress by Yours Truly.
$1,700 to $3,400 - Amount of raffle tickets entered for East Valley Scrappers Guild stuff. Thanks Ladies!
154 - number of paying attendees.
34 - Volunteers helping with setup, cashier tables, item runners and Doggy Dates.
7 - Number of dogs brought along that were up for adoption.
1 - Number of adorable black lab puppies that I wanted to take home with me.
0 - Number of puppies that Dan let me bring home.
$200 - winning bid for my parents' Suns tickets.
$6,350 - amount raised by surprise items. Some attendees were so into the auction, they offered up items from their dinner tables! Rounds of golf at an ultra-exclusive course, personal tours of the Diamondbacks facilities, artwork done by Ron Burns, a 3 night resort stay from any one of over 100 resorts.
10+ - number of strangers who upon hearing my name remarked, "Oh, I recognize your name!" I felt like a kinda celebrity.
4 - number of times I had to use a lint roller to get pet fluff off my black pants. (Hindsight is 20/20.)
1 - number of items I was tempted to bid on. John Travolta autographed a painting done by a former shelter dog, as well as a framed photo and a Hairspray poster. Winning bid was well over $1500. Dan would have been upset with me...
500+ number of items up for bid, ranging in winning price of $30-$3000

So all in all the event was fantastic! Next week, we'll be here, handing out info about Friends for Life and selling t-shirts. F4L is one of the 4 non-profit groups that Petfest gives free exhibit space as well as a portion of the proceeds. So please, come bring little Fluffy and Fido and visit us! You can help Dan keep me away from the adoption area. I think he volunteered to go just to prevent me from bringing home another pet...

Whoa, past midnight. Going to bed now... I need to break my internet addiction.