Social Faux Paws

The dog who crashed the party.

By Sandy Robins | Photographs by Keith Andrew Shore

Picture it. The rolling lawns of a Beverly Hill Estate in California decked with tables for a posh afternoon English tea party. Chilled champagne with a plump strawberry is the drink du jour and the sounds of social chitchat and laughter are offset by a string quartet providing background mood music. Suddenly, a red convertible zooms up the driveway and out jumps a boisterous Golden Retriever barking madly. He rushes to the nearest white Iceberg rose bush and lifts his leg, narrowly missing the cellist. His pet parent, after handing her car keys to the valet, ambles over, pats her pup on the head and tells him to "go play" before heading off to greet her hostess and mingle with the other guests.

What the uninvited canine did next managed to lift even Botoxed brows. He nipped around to investigate the tables laden with food and "taste-tested" the quiches and assorted sandwiches, leaving guests to pick their way through what remained.

The hostess, furious at the owner's unconcern over her pet's social "faux paw" had to send an urgent SOS to her caterer and vowed to remove the guilty interloper's parent from her guest list forever.