For the Dogs

Tonight was to have been one of animal activist Wendy Diamond's biggest and best Howlaween celebrations to date. The annual event is regarded as a must-attend party by dog-lovers and Halloween revelers alike, attracting a celebrity crowd that is beautiful, fun and of course, canine friendly.

This year's venue, brand-new danceteria District 36, on West 36th Street, is one of the fall's most-buzzed-about openings. And yet, the nightclub preview that guests expected to have this evening was simply not to be. Instead, thanks to a negative ruling by the NYC Board of Health concerning dogs and food occupying the same space, guests arrived at District 36 to closed doors plastered with signs redirecting them 20 blocks south, to 14th Street. It was there that another new spot, Snap, owned by Matthew Isaacs, had generously come to the rescue. Coincidentally, Snap was celebrating a low-key friends and family preview before its own opening next week and agreed to host the party at the 11th hour. But no sooner than you could say "Oh, snap," the redirected guests told that here, too, dogs would not be allowed inside. Thank you, New York City Health Department.

With a "show must go on" attitude that only a dynamo like Diamond could muster, she and her longtime friends Sandra DeFeo and Anne-Marie Karash from the Humane Society of New York decided to hold the dog costume contest and judging right on the sidewalk. (Much to the chagrin of the NYPD.) In front of a hastily arranged step and repeat affixed to a plywood construction barricade, celebrity judges Dylan Lauren (daughter of Ralph and founder of the delightful Candy Bar); high-society gal Tinsley Mortimer (in pigtails); and ubiquitous TV personality Sara Gore, looking glam and Gatsbyesque, presided over a contest that included purebreds and mutts dressed as everthing from Cleopatra to a centipede.

It was most certainly not the sort of night anyone had imagined it would be, and yet, tempers remained calm as the good dog people in attendance mixed and mingled just as they would have in a nightclub. (Albeit sans cocktails and thumping house music.)

Despite the circumstances, every dog did indeed have his day, with multiple prizes awarded before the group went home with tales (and tails!) to tell to loved ones of a crazy New York night.

Want to see who won? Watch for the top dog and his owner to appear with Diamond on the Today show this Friday.

Gone to the Dogs

We've all seen them on the streets of New York....hapless canines dressed in "cute" outfits by their owners. "Get me out of here," the dogs' eyes seem to plead, as the biped holding the leash grins from ear to ear about how adorable the ensemble looks on his or her pet.

Not so the dogs at Howlaween last night, an event benefitting the Humane Society of New York and sponsored by Wendy Diamond and Animal Fair magazine. Dressed as characters from the Big Bad Wolf to Shrek's Princess Fiona, Jackie O to hero pilot "Sully" Sullenberger, these pooches loved every minute of being in Halloween costume. Parading on a runway at M2 Ultralounge, in Chelsea, the dogs (and their costumed caretakers) delighted a standing-room-only crowd that came out to enjoy the kind of creativity that was truly something to bark about.

Celebrity judges for the night included the cast of National Geographic's Rescue Ink,  Real Housewives of New York's Ramona Bass and Miss Teen USA, Stormi Bree Henley. For more pictures of man's best friends lapping it up on the runway, click here.