The St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (aka the shelter) had it’s annual fund-raising auction last night.

We’ve been the guests of Michael’s company for three years now and it’s always an interesting time.

I love the name of the event! It’s a dress-up affair, and they generally have nice dining/dancing music and lovely hors d’oeuvre, food and wines.

The silent auction opens early and they historically have had a live auction following dinner (or since dinner was so late last year, during a break in courses). This year, though, there was no live auction. Maybe they couldn’t round up an auctioneer? Anyway, they made up for the lack of a live auction with a doggy fashion show, featuring many of the shelter’s homeless and needy children dressed in costumes donated by Donna at Sadie’s Pet Boutique in the Pan Am Pavillion.

I was in tears listening to the heart-breaking stories of the little ones. One of the pups who was found and rescued had only three feet. Another was found with a bullet in his side. Others were left there by previous owners who could no longer care for them. We, of course, cannot take any more! We have eleven! (and 4 cats).

So we bought a few things at the silent auction. We actually found the silent auction to be pretty boring. The only things I really wanted were the jewelry pieces donated by Gems Direct. There was an opal cat pendant in a silver setting with a really nice chain. And the original valentine’s heart bracelet. The pendant was bought by a tough competitor. We bid on it at least three times and lost it at the last minute.
But we got the bracelet!

We also got a gift certificate for $100 worth of paint (which we certainly can use), and a set of dishes which we don’t need at all. Actually, we bid on a few more things, lunch and dinner gift certificates from some of our favorite restaurants, but there were other folks hungrier than us (and wealthier) who walked away with those.

The food was fabulous! Appetizers of asparagus wrapped in proscuitto, sushi, mini spinach pies, and mushroom stuffed fillo pillows, brie en croute. Mmmmm….

The salad was okay, the dressing a little too tart, but my salmon entree was exquisite. Michael’s boeuf was rare and tender. served with garlic mashed potatoes and baby squash.

Dessert began with skewered fresh fruit and ginger cookies, but ended with a perfectly small piece of some sort of chocolate brownie or flourless cake with creme fraiche, and coffee. It was yummmmmy.

All in all, we had a nice time, met some new people and drank lots of wine (surprise!). And we even came home with some loot!

Tags: St. Croix

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Reviews, St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.