The St. Francis of Assisi Award

  Holly Forsythe, co-owner of Sambuca Restaurants, began the restaurant chain in 1991 with her brother Kim. Since then, they have opened seven Sambuca locations in Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Addison, Denver, Plano and Dallas; and a nightclub, the Milkbar, in Dallas. Holly designs all of the Sambuca locations, and as a result she has started her own design firm, Holly Forsythe Design.

Holly received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of Texas and a design degree from Parson’s School of Design in New York. As a student, Holly lived in Madrid, Spain and studied European Art History.

Holly's true passion in life is helping rescued animals. At the age of 10, Holly rescued and adopted her first dog, a stray that had been dumped out in the country near her family home in Plano. Her next rescue was a couple years later, and that began the lifelong venture to make a difference in the life of animals!

Holly currently is serving on the Advisory Boards of Paws in the City, Operation Kindness, and the Leadership Council for the Texas Horse Park. She hosts several charities for animal organizations at her restaurants, including Paws Cause, Hope Gala, and Animal Angels Sanctuary. She is past Honorary Chair for Top Hat and Tails. Most recently, Holly co-chaired the Spotlight Humane Gala for the National Humane Society (HSUS), a benefit to help fight puppy mills. The benefit successfully raised nearly $250,000.

Holly’s furry family includes an Australian Shepherd, River, a Border Collie, Dakota, two rescued cats, Kenya and Blacky, and her five horses. Her personal favorite horse is a Paint named Cheyenne.

Paws in the City is honored to award Holly the St. Francis of Assisi Award. Year after year, Holly generously donates not only her resources to many animal rescue organizations, but also donates much of her time; sharing advice, feedback and her expertise. She is crucial to the success of Paws in the City and the Top Hat & Tails gala.

Kinder Kritter
Kinder Kritter provides doggy daycare, boarding and grooming services in the White Rock Lake area. To assure our guests receive plenty of personal interaction with the staff and other doggy guests, we limit the number of boarders and day campers that attend the Kritter each day.
We also assure our guests are in good company by our thorough enrollment process, which includes a detailed application that must be completed and reviewed by staff prior to enrollment. We love fostering the Paws in the City babies and helping find homes.

Wüf Pet Resort & Spa (www.wufspa.com) is proud to partner with Paws in the City to assist in their daily effort to save the lives of dogs in need of “forever families.”
Our part in the rescue mission is to socialize and love these pups in Wüf’s warm environment. Each Paws Pup plays, eats, and sleeps knowing they are moving toward a better life. The staff at Wüf tucks these pups in to bed at night knowing they are helping them gain a new life.

Wüf fosters four to six rescues each day and recently opened The Wüf Nursery that coddles a litter of 8 puppies and their mom. This litter is broadcast live on Wüf’s website (www.wufspa.com) so potential adopters can watch the family grow. Please log on each day to our Puppy Cam to check their progress, see them open their eyes, and begin to explore the world! BoConcepts has partnered with Wüf to furnish the room for these pups to rest in style.

Wüf Pet Resort & Spa (www.wufspa.com) is a luxury boarding, daycare, and spa for the discerning dog and their owner. Wüf boasts luxury hotel rooms that provide canine clients with pillow-top beds, flat-screen TVs, in-room web-cams for owners to view activity, daily housekeeping, and room service. Our large daycares and outdoor dog park also have webcams so dog owners can watch their pooches play and relax with their canine friends. Wüf is convenient to both D-FW and Love Field Airports with extended hours for daily drop-off, pick-up, and the option to pick-up after hours. Shuttle service for our canine clients is also available.

At Wüf, our clients are treated like family. We look forward to hosting you!*** All pups adopted through Paws in the City are invited to a complimentary first groom or bath at the time of adoption! ***Thank you to all Paws in the City volunteers for all of your hard work! We invite you to enjoy a special Paws in the City Rate for boarding, daycare, and grooming while actively saving the lives of our four-legged friends!

Urban Paws is a new pet hotel in Downtown Dallas. This was the vision that owner Laurel Levin had while living in Chicago, climbing the corporate ladder and searching for a loving, caring and safe boarding place for her dogs… it was hard to find. She made mental notes of how she could do it all better… her vision became a reality when she opened Urban Paws in September, 2009. We specialize in TLC, tender, loving care for all the dogs that walk through our doors. Paws in the City has trusted us with their most valued family members. Their dogs and dedicated volunteers have become part of our family, their work has touched our hearts and we are thankful for the opportunity to provide these dogs a safe, loving and fun environment as they wait for their forever homes. We are honored to have the privilege of including these dogs into our pack and work daily with each dog to help build up their self confidence and social skills for quicker and successful placement into forever nurturing homes.

The Boarding Bungalow teamed up with Paws in the City in May of 2009. The Boarding Bungalow is a family-owned and operated all-suites pet boarding facility designed with their guests' safety in mind. They have since helped us foster and place over 25 dogs in their forever homes. The owner of The Boarding Bungalow, Kimberly Lye, personally fosters dogs and has adopted “Tripp”, a Great Pyrenees from PITC.

The Boarding Bungalow has been generous enough to set aside 3 or 4 suites just for PITC dogs as well as a kitty condo for one of our cats at all times and at no cost to us! Many of the PITC volunteers chose the Bungalow to take care of our "special needs" rescues since they are designed to accommodate all personalities and provide them with the individualized attention and love they need .. With a great outside exercise yard, our rescues find themselves on vacation until they find their forever homes. In fact, some of the rescues that have been adopted out of The Boarding Bungalow have become regular guests of theirs, so they get to see them continue to develop in their forever homes!