Animal lovers from throughout the region took to the Abingdon Ruritan Club in Bena on Saturday for the Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society’s Mad Hatter Gala and Auction, the organization’s premier fundraiser.

As GMHS receives limited funding from local governments, the shelter and homeless pets whose lives they save depend largely on the event’s success, and Saturday’s event did not disappoint. In fact, it was GMHS’s most successful auction to date. The Humane Society is in the midst of conducting a final tally and expects to have a figure of exactly how much money was raised by the end of the week, said Communications Manager April Martinez.

As guests arrived, they were greeted by a display of vines, ivy and flowers—evocative of the rabbit hole from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”—and tables were adorned with whimsical Mad Hatter centerpieces, crafted by Auction Committee member Mike Ivey. Many guests embraced the event&rs...