It's Furbaby Friday AND the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop!!

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And WE are the VAbeachquilter's family!

I, Skip, used to be one of MANY pups that lived with a hunter until Mom came and picked me out. It was pretty crowded there and I probably wouldn't have gotten much attention. So I'm glad I got to come live with this nice family. My adopted brother, Junior, lived in a place called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I don't know how long he had been there, but he's pretty lucky to have been found and cared for before my family adopted him. I guess Mom just thought he was too cute to leave him there! And it's nice to have a brother to play with!

Hey peeps! Moda here. Grrrrr....ruff, ruff! Ooops! Oh yeah-Meooooow! Sometimes I forget I'm a cat. You see, I spent the first 6 weeks of my kittyhood with these two giant St. Bernards in a yard and I guess I kind of started to take on their likeness! MOL (mew out loud!) Anyway, it's a good thing I was rescued because I probably would have gotten a good wallop one day thinking I was a dog! Maybe that's why I keep myself a bit rotund these days. I'll blame it on my past issues. My adopted sisters are Cleo, the white one, and Jasmine. Cleo couldn't stay with her original mom anymore because she was in the Navy and leaving for Germany. So Mom took her. Don't we have the best mom?! Jasmine was a tiny babe of 3 weeks when Mom rescued her. She had to be bottle fed since she was so teeny. But, as you can see, she isn't teeny anymore!

Ferret, ferret, ferret, ferret, ferret, ferret! Yep there's six of us happy critters! Fun x 6 = daily antics and surprises! I, Cinnamon, was in a pet store about 18 months ago. Alone. Bereft of buddies. Six months earlier I had two friends that I played with daily. But one day some humans came and took them away. I was sad. But what could I do? So I sat there for 180 days, hoping I might be picked by some nice family. Then one day, the same humans who came to take my friends, came back to the store. And they remembered me! They saw how sad I was and felt so sorry for me that they took me home...to my two buddies, Boomer and Hedwig! What a reunion that was! The rest of our clan came from a family who was moving to Charlottesville and couldn't take them. So...well... you know my mom by now! And that boy human-he's awesome! He loves to play with us!

Mom puts us in a big playpen during the day for exercise. My brother Hedwig NEVER stays in there. He's out in a wink. I stay in and play with Boomer, Bandit, Snowball, and Rascal for about 20 minutes, then zoooooooooooomie! I'm out! Haha! Hedwig and I play in the house the rest of the day and try to hide from Mom and the boy human. So fun!

We ALL love it here! Thanks, Mom, for taking such good care of us-we wouldn't want to live anywhere else!

Kim is a very talented quilter and seamstress that I met on Twitter. Her bags, table runners, wall hangings, coupon organizers, cozies.....and many other items range from useful to unique. And there's A LOT of them! Make sure you visit her two shops where you'll find plenty of goodies for the home, friends, and the upcoming holidays.

http://www.artfire.com/users/vabeachquilter

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vabeachquilter

School Days Quilted Tote

Large Insulated Coaster Set

Mini Fall Mat

Chrysa Kitty Cat

(gotta have a kitty in there!)

You can also find Kim on Twitter

www.twitter.com/vabeachquilter

She has a Facebook fan page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Virginia-Beach-VA/VaBeachQuilter/253075845077?ref=ts

and her own blog!

http://vabeachquilter.blogspot.com

Kim will receive 50 free tweets starting this weekend!

FURBABY FRIDAY is dedicated to our much loved furry (or not so furry!) animal friends that enrich our lives and world and make us better people!

If you are an owner of an Etsy, Artfire, or other online shop with a pet and would like to be featured here, please follow me and leave a comment with a link to where I might contact you. Those chosen will receive 50 free Tweets of advertising the following week.

IT'S FURBABY FRIDAY!

I spent last week in Chicago with my daughter-in-law, Abby, and son, Gabe. They have a very nice 'family'! Two each of dogs, guinea pigs, and birds. Today you will meet the dogs, Toby and Haylee.

Toby-Gabe's best friend

I was just a pup living in Rescue Village in Ohio when I first heard that word 'home'. I really had no idea what anyone was talking about. I had my brother to play with and the humans at the Village were nice to me. But I kept hearing 'home' and 'family' and 'adopt' Sometimes my friends would be let out in a pen, and humans would come to play with them. My friends would wag their tails and bark and jump. And then a human might pick one up or pet one a lot. They might even talk to the Village people about taking them 'home'. I began to think that 'home' was better than the Village, that 'family' was a good thing and that 'adopt' meant I had to put on a good show to go there.

One day a man human came to the Village. He looked at some of my friends. Then he looked at me. Some of us were let into a pen and got to do our 'adopt' tricks. But I really didn't know what to do. I was nervous. But I so badly wanted to do a good 'adopt' show, so I ran over to the man and-this is so bad-I PEED on him! Oh, what a dumb thing to do! Surely, I was doomed! But, no. The man laughed and pet me and said he wanted me!

So Gabe became my new best friend. He has always treated me kindly and like a true buddy. We have long talks and he lets me share his couch. I have been there for him when times were tough and when times were great. I am a good listener. I am four years old now and can hardly remember what life was like without Gabe. He is my hero and everything to me!

Haylee...Abby's sweetheart

I was taken from Tennessee and brought up to Chicago when I was very little. I don't remember much about Tennessee but I just get some nasty feelings when I think about it. I was taken to The Anti Cruelty Society where I got a bath, food, and met nice humans. I had friends there, too. Sometimes the Anti Cruelty humans would bring other humans in to see us dogs. They would talk and play with us and say things about being in a family. One day some humans came and they said they wanted me. I was so excited! Was I going to go to a family? I said bye to my friends and was put in another car and taken to their home. I was pretty young still and I know I had lots of energy, but I tried to be good. I guess I just wasn't good enough though, because not long after they put me back in the car and left me at a dog pound. I didn't like it much. I was scared. But thankfully I was let out and taken back to Anti Cruelty. Back to the old friendly faces. This was the best 'family' I knew. One day a man human and his lady came to the Society. They looked at a lot of dogs. They even looked at me. I was still a bit scared. I remembered the car rides, the mean faces, the pound. But they seemed to like me and decided to adopt me. So I had to go in the car again. I felt sick. I was nervous and afraid. But the lady was nice to me. Even if I was bad, she would discipline me, but she still liked me. I wondered when they would make me leave. But days turned to weeks, and weeks to months. I finally realized they weren't going to make me leave-that they really loved me and that I was truly a part of their family! It was amazing! I love Abby! She has made me a better dog. She takes me in the car to places that are fun-like the dog beach! She even buys me toys that I can chew up in 10 minutes and doesn't yell at me! She's the best! I think I must have the greatest home in whole world!

We love to run and play together!

The dog beach is the best! I LOVE to swim! These are some friends I met there last week.

We get to go to the playground at night and run full blast around the fenced in area. One of my favorite things is going down the cool slides!

It's VERY hard to run like torpedoes for too long! I'm taking a break...

This is what we look like after a playtime at the beach...all wet and tuckered out on our way home.

Isn't this the life. I sure am a lucky girl to be loved like this!

It doesn't get any better....

I hope that other dogs who live at Rescue Village and Anti-Cruelty will someday get to experience what 'home' and 'family' really means. It sure is wonderful!

*****************

Toby just recently passed his Canine Good Citizen test and is a certified therapy dog.

Haylee is 18 months old and will celebrate her one year anniversary with Gabe and Abby this month. She is going to get her Canine Good Citizen someday when she settles down a bit and hopefully be trained in agility!

Abby volunteers with Anti Cruelty in Chicago where she adopted Haylee and is hoping to have a dog training business one day.

Gabe is the founder of ZigZap Technologies and is based in Chicago with a branch in the Cleveland, Ohio area. ZigZap provides complete IT solutions for any size business.

http://www.zigzap.com/

FURBABY FRIDAY is dedicated to our much loved furry (or not so furry!) animal friends that enrich our lives and world and make us better people!

If you are an owner of an Etsy, Artfire, or other online shop with a pet and would like to be featured here, please follow me and leave a comment with a link to where I might contact you. Those chosen will receive 50 free Tweets of advertising the following week.