A cocktail hour that took place in the Drake's French and Walton rooms featured Kehoe-designed lounge areas filled with couches and floor pillows. Crystal water bowls sat on the floor beside each bar, and while hotel staffers circulated with puffed mushroom pastries and chicken skewers for the humans, tables labeled "pet buffet" offered crystal goblets filled with mashed chicken, carrots, and peas. 

While guests headed toward a buffet dinner in the grand ballroom or the Gold Coast Room (sponsor tables filled the latter space, while regular ticket-holders dined in the former), dogs received massages and manicures in an upstairs area that housed a temporary pet spa.

Throughout the evening, guests posed for pictures with their pets on a red carpet that ran down the hallway. The photo ops proved popular, and even those without dogs crowded in to look on and coo. The scene caused one guest to joke, "Is this the line for Santa?"