8 State Hurricane Kate

Tonight I went to the Humane Society of Louisiana “Canines on the Catwalk” benefit, a fashion show including people and dogs, at Michaud’s Restaurant on St. Charles Avenue. Michaud’s, which just re-opened for the first time since Katrina, offers live Cajun and Zydeco Music on most nights. Deedra from Canine Culture was there, along with Kelly, who works at the Canine Connection—the dog day care and boarding branch of the business.

The event was a stitch (no pun intended), with human models displaying fashions from Prima Donna’s Closet, accompanied by canine models. The fashion show was awesome! During the show, I spotted a cattle dog on the runway. He was a young rescue dog who had been adopted by the woman who accompanied him. In addition to the show, there was a raffle fundraiser and vendors selling wonderful animal-related merchandise. Humane-LA was selling T-shirts to raise funds for the Katrina Animal Memorial Statue that will be unveiled on August 29th.

I met Michelle from Zeus’ Place, a boarding and grooming business, and Kim of Dag’s House, a unique canine physical rehabilitation center. I briefly met Jeff Dorson of Humane-LA. He was tied up with details of the event, but I gave him a book card and he gave me his contact information for later. It was wonderful to meet all of these fantastic people who are doing so much for the animals in Louisiana!

Kelly won a rubber chicken, “Henrietta” in a gift basket from the raffle and gave her to me (I had told her how much my dog Bandit loves rubber chickens). She also gave me a 2 year subscription to Urban Dog magazine (she won two), where Canine Culture advertises and I could advertise too. I hadn’t heard of it, but it’s a great magazine with distribution in 25 states! So although I didn’t win anything directly in the raffle, I didn’t go home with empty arms!

As people were leaving, I distributed postcards telling about Kate’s book. I learned about a local reporter who covers animal issues and events and a local free newspaper, the Gambit Weekly, that has widespread distribution.

Late tonight, after I returned to the hotel, I applied to be on the Ellen Degeneres Show. She cares about New Orleans and she seems to love dogs, so maybe my timing is good with the Katrina anniversary coming up.