The fundraising arm of the Fidose of Reality blog is Wigglebutt Warriors. On Saturday, April 16th, almost 200 people, 60 dogs, and one cat came together in the name of dog and fundraising for homeless canines in need for Wigglebutts Uncorked. Well, the Wiggy Awards capped the night off!
Brotherhood Winery served as the venue for the gala, which benefited NYC Second Chance Rescue. Receipts are being tallied, donations are being added up, and we will have a full report, a look behind the scenes, and some fabulous photos and videos to share.
2016 Wiggy Award Winners Named
During the Wigglebutts Uncorked gala, awards were given out in a variety of categories. Animal Planet’s Andrea Arden hosted the festivities as our celebrity emcee.
What is a Wiggy Award?
The Wiggys are awards that honor dogs (and cats) in a variety of categories and celebration of giving back. This year’s Wiggy Awards are sponsored by My Pet Harmony.
How Are Wiggy Award Winners Selected?
Judges make their way around the gala ballroom to select their winners. Several attendees are chosen at random and each given one or two categories to judge. In other cases, the Wigglebutt Warriors founders select the winners in certain categories such as Traveled the Farthest.
The 2016 Wiggy Award Winners
Here are the winners as they were selected. Photographs courtesy Juli Dritz Cialone of Cialone Photography:
Best Dressed Male: Ace of Marlene Ness
Best Dressed Female: Nevada of Terry St. Angelo
Any Species Other Than Dog: Coco the Couture Cat of Teri Thorsteinson
Cutest Mutt Award: Zoey of Jason Diehl and Dawn Webster
Best Wigglebutt: Coco O’Neill, rescued by NYC Second Chance Rescue
Outstanding Rescue Pet: Landis of Ryan Vayo
Friendliest Dog Award:Poppy of Kim Kiernan
Best Dressed Duo: This award goes to the best dressed pet parent and pet in attendance this evening: Lisa Coplin Kerner with Rose and Viki Anders with Kismet:
Traveled the Farthest: Lorien Clemens from Washington state
Wigglebutt Warrior of the Year: This award goes to someone who goes above and beyond to help save dogs’ lives. The person must exemplify the Wigglebutt Warriors slogan which is “Crusading to Save Dogs’ Lives”
We have a 3-way tie this year, for the first time ever!!
The first Wigglebutt Warrior of the Year is: June Myers of Oklahoma, who gives so tirelessly to dogs in need: From volunteering to transport to foster and even foster failure!
And the second Wigglebutt Warrior of the Year is: Jan Todd, who is also a rescue advocate. She volunteers her time to help dogs in need, transports and fosters, and has an active Justice for Pookie Facebook page.
And our third Wigglebutt Warrior of the Year is Regina Mendoza, who is one year has fostered over 120 dogs and helped get them into loving, forever homes!
Event Highlights
CLICK THIS: Susan Nation of Talent Hounds blog traveled from Canada to attend the gala event and here is her report on Wigglebutts Uncorked.
Stay tuned for more blog posts all week long recapping the celebration and fun! We will also be growing and doing more, so stay tuned in the coming months for other announcements. Meantime, please support your local rescue or favorite rescue online. Pets in need count on you!
Carol Bryant
A dog lover of the highest order is how Gayle King introduced Carol Bryant, when she appeared with her Cocker Spaniel on Oprah Radio’s Gayle King show to dish dogs. Carol created and owns the trademark, My Heart Beats Dog® and lives that mantra. A 30-year veteran of the dog world, she is President of the Dog Writers Association of America (DWAA) and the 2020 DWAA winner for Best Dog Blog.
Congrats to all! Looks like so much fun
Congratulations to all of the winners. This is my first time hearing about the Wiggy Awards.
Thank yo so much for this honor. I will continue to do all I can for the animals….Saving Lives One at a Time.
Well, you know, our pets deserve awards too! That show looked like a lot of fun. With all those dogs and cats, I would have had a blast!
Congrats to all the winners. What a fun time everyone must have had.
What a fun event! It looks so much better than those stuffy dog shows I’ve seen.
CONGRATULATIONS to you all! What a wonderful weekend and honored to be a part.
What a fantastic contest! Congrats to all the winners!
What a wonderful event! Congrats to all the winners!
A gala with pets!? How fun is that? Congrats to all the winners!
I’ve been waiting to see your 1st post and it was worth the wait! Congrats to all of the winners! I can’t wait to see more!
So cool! Congrats to all the winners.
Oh my! I loved all the pics and it looked like a smashing success! Congrats to all the winners!
I’m amazed at these wonderful people who do all this work to help animals. This is incredible, and it’s fun to see the pets win awards too!
Congratulations to all of the winners, and especially to my friend, June Myers! She is truly a Warrior in a sweet and sassy personality!
Wow! What an awesome event with such amazing people and their pets! Congratulations to all the winners.
What a great event and fun contest! Everyone looks paw-tastic.
Congrats to all of the winners! I loved seeing all the pics over the weekend. Wish we could have attended!
Very nice. Congratulations to the winners
Lily & Edward
OMG that cat is awesome! Great outfits, love the awards
I had such a great time at the Gala Carol. All of these people and dogs are wonderful and I’m so glad they got to take home an award and get recognized for all they do. Can’t wait for the next one!
It looks like a fabulous gala! Congratulations on a wonderful event. You ROCK!
Soooooo glad Polly won an award! Congrats to all the winners and well done Dexter & team for all your efforts. WeK 😉
Sounds like a fun event! Love their costumes. The hastag cracked me up!
COngrats all
I know Poppy and she is very friendly so congrats to her! Love Dolly
What a great event! Congrats to all of the winners 🙂 Looks like it was a success!
OH my goodness how fun! The best dressed female gets lots of awws from me. She’s def. red carpet ready. 🙂
Just wanted to add thanks for the shout-out, congrats to winners and great job Juli Dritz Cialone of Cialone Photography. I am inspired to improve my camera and skills as these photos are fabulous. Also nice to be reminded the names of all the nice dogs and people I met. I really loved the story of Landis and Baby Joey and Regina. Thanks again and I hope Dar is doing better this afternoon. Thinking of you.
It looks like you had a great time!
Congrats to all the winners. So many fabulous outfits!
Looks like there was a LOT of fun going on last Saturday night at the Brotherhood Winery! Congratulations (and thank you) to the winners! Great pics (and on a side note, I thought the man with the facial hair was Justin Timberlake at first glance; they look MUCH alike). ☺
Congratulations to all! Loved seeing all the winners with their attire, just fabulous. I can see why you had a tie for the Warrior of the year award. Amazing work they are all doing to help those darling fur babies ❤
Congratulations to all the winners, and to Carol and Darlene for dreaming big and helping so many others. This sounds like it was a huge success, thanks for being so generous with your time and talent!
Sounds like a great event and so much fun for everyone! Great pics too!
So wishing I didn’t have to miss this! Stupid job. Next year – sponsor for sure.
Congrats to all of the winners. This looked like a great event!
What a great event! I love the name too! ??
HUGE Congratulations to ALL!!! OMG Jan was there???!!! I am soooooooooooooo bummed that I missed every one and every thing! Carol, I am LOVING YOUR HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You look AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just gorgeous!
Congratulations to all the winners! It looks like it was an amazing and fun evening.
I was so happy to see the felines represented by Coco! She DOES have such a good fashion sense!
Congrats to the winners – such a wonderful event. We loved Lorien’s song too – what an awesome voice she has.
Congrats to all the winners. What a beautiful gala and the people-dogs are so stylish
Congrats to all of the winners!
I’m a little jealous – it looked like so much fun to be at this time event & (of course) all the doggies & their parents look gorgeous!
Great job, Carol!
CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners! What a great group of awards and award recipients! Fabulous event helping out a great organization, NYC Second Chance Rescue.
Congratulations to all of the winners!
CONGRATULATIONS WIGGY AWARD WINNERS!! What a spectacular event!