Get Yappy at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel

If you like to party with Fido, head to Yappy Hour, the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel's monthly cocktail party for canines and their companions Thursday night from 5 to 8 p.m.

Kick back and relax while your dog frolics on the Dana Lawn. Your buddy can lap up water in his favorite flavor—bacon, chicken, cheese, beef or liver—as you have a cocktail furnished by Mutt Lynch Winery.

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Pet Project Foundation, a nonprofit, charitable organization formed in early 2004 with the merger of two animal-welfare groups—Friends of San Clemente Animals and Animal Rescue Foundation of Dana Point.

At Pet Project Foundation’s shelter, no adoptable animal is ever euthanized. Lost and abandoned animals have a second chance at a good life, thanks to the Pet Project Foundation and the San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter.

Canines get in free, and there will be no-host cocktails and hors d’oeuvres for their companions.

Yappy Hour is Thursday, April 7, May 5, June 2, July 7, Aug. 4, and Sept. 1,  from 5 to 8 p.m.  The monthly events are held to raise money for Pet Project Foundation, whose mission is “to enhance the quality of life of all companion animals in a pro-humane manner through compassion, responsibility, education and service.”

Also on hand will be a professional photography studio offering  portraits of guests and their pets on finished fine art canvas giclees. Also attending will be Jill Goldman, one of 40 certified applied animal behaviorists in the world.