FOLSOM Growls!

Fetishists around the world all eyed on San Francisco in September! San Francisco Leather Week (September 20 – September 27, 2009) once again offered an ever growing range of options for leather and fetish communities in the fog city and beyond. The renowned Mama’s LeatherWalk by Sandy Reinhardt and Eagle beer bust kicked off the week-long celebration of kink. The SF Leather Week was fun filled with numerous art, social, or charity events, and of cause, lots of play parties included.

The highlight of the Week was Folsom Street Fair on the last Sunday of September. The world’s largest leather street fair was located in San Francisco's South of Market district on Folsom Street between 7th and 12th Streets, featuring over 250+ exhibitors / vendors and non-stop performance by alternative artists for 7 hours. Nevertheless, it was the 400,000+ attendees who marked the Folsom Street of San Francisco the kinkiest place in the world. The Fair raised nearly US$340,000 supporting the work of our 16 Bay Area major and supporting beneficiaries that are working diligently to improve local communities in the areas of public health, human services, and the arts. However, the grant-making extends beyond these groups to include non-profit beverage partners, community partners, and the National Community Grants Program. Combined, Folsom Street Fair supported over 60 worthy charities in the last year.

Annual puppy dinner

The San Francisco K-9 Unit welcomed pups and Handlers with their annual puppy dinner at Don Ramon’s Restaurant on Friday night this year. The entire upper floor of the restaurant was reserved by the Unit, providing a quality space for pups to romp… or mess around. 39 pups and Handlers arrived at the restaurant at 6:30pm to mingle and nuzzle, whereas those pups dragging with their bowl to the restaurant enjoyed a choice of 4 Mexican dinners in a truly doggy style on the floor. “It was definitely a first for me to pup out at a public restaurant and eat out of a dog bowl, but was an awesome feeling”, said wolfe, member of the Unit. Spunky of the Master Richard family explained, “This was the forth dinner that we had at Don Ramon's and by far the best one yet. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the energy was just incredible.” More photos of the puppy dinner are available on RichTrove.com, taken by the official photographer of the night and famed leather event photographer in US, Rich Stadtmiller.

Folsom puppy booth

Thanks to the effort of Daddy Gizmo (John) who pulled in LeatherMatch.com as a sponsor and Folsom Street Events for booth space, the SF K-9 Unit had a puppy booth at Folsom Street Fair for the first time. The 10 X 10 feet booth space was located adjacent to Chaps II bar on Folsom Street and 8th Street, a perfect spot for pups and Handlers to meet and chill out together. It was the collective work of nearly 30 members of the Unit to ensure the booth was another success, 10 hours straight from 8:30am of the day.

The puppy booth was equipped with a full size puppy cage, as well as play and rest areas. Toys and Scooby-Doo biscuits were also available to visiting pups and volunteers. The booth was constantly crowded by endless flow of Folsom attendees with cameras flashing from all angles. Stray, as other demonstrating pups of the day, wagged his tail up and down at his best to grab for attention and photo opt. He was joined by Fender to have the most amazing moment with a bio dog from the crowd, as Fender recalled, “we got down and locked eyes, laid down, talked and connected as pups. It was awesome”. There were laughers from every one of us whenever bio dog passed by the booth, and apparently, showed a bit of jealousy issue from the affection our human dogs were getting. The booth not only served as a gathering point for pups and Handlers (and lost pups too!?) at Folsom, it was also a great platform to introduce puppy play to many who were new to this sub-culture. Don’t be surprised seeing some new blood of pups and Handlers in your neighbourhood soon after Folsom.

The SF K-9 Unit has long been devoting to develop a network for pups and Handlers in the SF Bay Area. Thanks to the years of unselfish and continuous dedication of their core members, as Spunky proudly said, they have turned the United to be “more than just a pack of pups and Handlers, but a pack of friends and Brothers”. It is the boning between the pack members that makes the SF K-9 Unit the most vibrant and robust K9 groups anyone has created. Other than the puppy booth, the SF K-9 Unit initiated a number of social, educational, and fund raising events in the SF Bay Area over the last year, including SF Puppy Park and pup play demo at Powerhouse. More new initiatives for 2010 are now in the brewing! Paws crossed to see how the Unit grows to the next level.