In a world of bodega-cat-slaying Waymos and putrid pet-shop politicians, it becomes necessary to remember the joy that animals bring.
Enter Sophie, a three- pound Yorkshire Terrier who celebrated her quinceañera in a Castro margarita bar on Saturday night. The bar closed just for the occasion.
“This little production turned into more of a production than I thought it would be,” said Sophie’s owner, Jake Castrejon, to a crowd of 50 at Santeria on Market near 16th Street.
They cheered Sophie’s “changing of the crown,” a rite of passage that, in the Latin American tradition, marks a 15-year-old girl’s transition to womanhood.
Perched cross-legged atop a booth, Castrejon clipped a miniature crown to the tuft of hair between Sophie’s ears. He replaced her collar with a rhinestone chain. Out of respect for the moment, a bartender halted his margarita production mid-shake.
“This is in a league of its own,” said Felipe, who’d been working at the bar for just a month. He had not anticipated anything like this: “When I came to work, they said they had booked a quinceañera for a pup.”
Castrejon, 29, is a regular who works as a chiropractor across the street. He and Sophie, an emotional-support animal who was not seen walking the entire night, have been attached at the hip for half of Castrejon’s life.
Castrejon’s family bred Sophie from their adopted Yorkie, Daisy, when Castrejon was a teenager.
“We loved [Daisy] so much we thought, why don’t we have another one?” he said.
When he moved out of his childhood home to attend college in Bellingham, Wash., Sophie came along.
The hashtag “Sophie sightings” trended around Western Washington University. She had her own desk when Castrejon attended chiropractic school in San Jose. She was with Castrejon when they were struck by a car at Market and 16th streets in 2023, and the chiropractor said he massaged her legs back to working condition.
Despite this recovery, when the invitation to Sophie’s quinceañera went out a month ago,“there were worries” about a month being a “long time” for an old dog, said teammates from Castrejon’s LGBTQ volleyball league.
Sophie showed them. Her languid expression did not falter as she was passed around the venue like a newborn baby and bounced up and down to dance songs like Boney M.’s “Rasputin.” According to Castrejon, Sophie has been even-keeled her whole life, and loves crowds.
“Boys, we need light!” he announced as he shooed guests aside to lift Sophie, Simba-style, for a photo in front of a mural of the Virgin Mary. A handful of men dutifully shone their phone flashlights up at Sophie, who stunned in a hot pink “couture ball gown” made by a man named Sam.
“She’s Glinda!” someone yelled. “If I had a budget, it would get very ‘Wicked’ very fast,” Castejon replied.
The birthday girl displayed a mild tremble during the five minutes she was placed upright on a green velvet armchair. A group danced the “Macarena” around her before she was scooped up again.
Sitting in Castejon’s lap, Sophie was presented with gifts like a “meat bouquet” of bones. It was the thought that counted, explained the friend who presented the gift: At the ripe age of 105 in dog years, Sophie has few teeth left.
She also has a “baseline shake,” said another friend, Dean Howdeshell, who met Sophie when she was attending chiropractic school. Nevertheless, he said, she’s shockingly just as “spry” as she was back in 2018. Allegedly, she still runs when taken to Duboce Park.
Does Sophie play with other dogs? “Not really,” Howdeshell said. But “she likes to smell urine.”
Howdeshell and his fiance put together an arch for Sophie to be photographed beneath. They briefly considered being married on the spot by another guest who was ordained: They’d save a lot of money. Alas, they let Sophie have her moment.
Guests less familiar with Sophie came to the party amused, but a bit puzzled by the concept. They left enamored.
“When I saw the Partiful [online invitation] said ‘changing of the collar’ and ‘father daughter dance,’ I was actually dying,” said one attendee. “What do you mean you’re having a dog quinceañera?”
“My dog got me through med school, and I just want to honor her,” he remembered Castrejon saying. “And I was like, wait, that’s actually really sweet.”
“In this news cycle, we need more whimsy in our lives,” said Niko Montes. He was so taken with the event that, after a couple hours of margaritas, he changed one of the lines of his Hinge dating profile, writing, “I was interviewed by the news at a dog quinceañera.”
This is wonderful reporting and I appreciated the Boney M. playlist detail.
Cringe dating platform.