ARF Hamptons: Bernadette Peters & Dick Cavett Woof It Up At The ... - Hamptons.com

One morning Dick Cavett got a call from ARF saying. “We’ve got your dog.” “I didn’t know I had one,” he told us. We were at the Bow Wow Meow Ball, for the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, held for the first time at their 22 acre Wainscott campus.

Cavett said he and wife, business author Martha Rogers, Ph.D., had made a visit to ARF to tell them “roughly what we wanted.” The dawn phone call to them in New York, took them by surprise. But, off they went. And, yes, it was their dog. “He was a little stand-offish for a couple of days, but I guess you would be too if you had been in a truck from Missouri for awhile,” said Cavett, who served as emcee, “or even in Missouri for awhile. But don’t tell Calvin Trillin that!”

Bernadette Peters said she was tempted to take a dog home with her that night. Right now, she said, she has two, “one for each hand.” Beth Ostrosky Stern presented her with ARF’s Champion of Animals Award. Christopher Mason was the live auctioneer. Bridgehampton Florist’s Michael Grim decorated the tent.

ARF has been affiliated for the past five years with the Broadway Barks Alliance Peters and Mary Tyler Moore founded 15 years ago, to strengthen the many shelters working independently.

“It’s an amazing organization,” Peters told us, of the ARF compound she had toured earlier. “They pull from all the kill shelters. I was very impressed today when I saw their spay neuter programs and classes for training. And they have plans for more buildings to house animals that live here. They also have a feral cat program, to socialize the kittens, fix the mother and put her back.”

Peters continues to perform concerts across the country. “I just did one in San Francisco, where I visited some shelters,” she said. “I got the interview to adopt a dog so be careful!”

Animal supporting guests included: Kathy and Billy Rayner, Leslie Alexander and Liz Brown, Lisa and Brian McCarthy, Barbara Slifka, Barbara and Donald Zucker, Jeff and Patsy Tarr, Steve Croft and Jenny Conant, Christopher Mason, Dina Merrill and Ted Hartley, Mark and Candy Udell, Carl and Kari Tiedmann, Ellen and Jim Marcus, Alex Papachristidis, Lily Mortimer, Carter Boardman, Katharina Otto Bernstein and Nathan Bernstein, Steven Gaines, and psychic James Van Praugh.
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