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About Teeny's Friends

We provide toys for needy dogs! At Teeny's Friends our goal is to make sure that no dog ever has to go without the simple pleasure of chasing a ball or snuggling a plushie. Our mission was inspired by Teeny, my own rescue dog & our mascot. We raise toys through monthly toy drives & the sale of our One For One toy (when you buy one, we donate one). The toys we raise are then donated to rescue groups, animal shelters, and families in low income neighborhoods. Read on to learn how you can help us help needy dogs!

Purchase Your Own Official Teeny's Friends One-For-One Toy!

Each is only $4.99 and when you buy one, we donate one to a needy dog! Buy your own via PayPal in the right-hand column below. Buy for yourself, as a gift, or as a donation for your favorite animal organization!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

December Toy Drive News

Our December toy drive plans have been finalized! We will be partnering with Christina's Critters, a local pet sitting and mobile grooming business.

Between Wednesday, December 1st and Saturday, December 18th Christina will be collecting toys from her clients.  If you are one of Christina's clients and would like to participate, here is what you need to do: when she is at your home for a visit between the above dates, give her a new or gently used dog toy and let her know it's for the toy drive. It's that easy! If you are not Christina's client but would like to be, contact her by email at christinascritters@gmail.com or by phone at 512.584.0987. She's fantastic! I can tell you from experience that our dogs are much happier with in-home pet sitting than they ever were being boarded. And if you have a dog that needs grooming there is nothing more convenient than a groomer who will come to you!

Christina has chosen Austin Boxer Rescue as the beneficiary organization. After the toy drive ends, the poochies at ABR will [hopefully!] have a big load of new toys just in time for Christmas!

If you are not Christina's client but would like to donate, please email us at teenys_friends@yahoo.com and we will happily work with you to make other arrangements!


Monday, November 29, 2010

Back in Texas & Cyber Monday Sale

It's Cyber Monday! You know what that means- people pushing elderly women out of the way for the last Tickle Me Elmo. Wait, that's Black Friday, the less civilized cousin of Cyber Monday. Anyway, I am putting our official one-for-one toy on sale FOR TODAY ONLY for $3.99. Don't forget I have recently added new options so that you may buy one as a gift for someone else [we add the donated toy to our monthly toy drive bins] OR to have one sent directly to your favorite shelter or other animal organization [we send BOTH toys to your chosen beneficiary].

In other news, we are back in Texas and slowly thawing out after spending 3 days up North with my family.  After all that time in the snow and temperatures averaging about 15 degrees it feels great to be back in Austin.  I was sad to leave my mom, stepdad, and little sister but SO happy to see my dogs!  Below I have posted a few photos from our trip.

If you find yourself doing any online shopping today, please consider buying our one-for-one toy as a Christmas gift for a pet lover in your life or for your own furbaby.  You'll be helping a needy dog at the same time, so it's a win-win situation!

The snow covered driveway at my
parents house on Thanksgiving A.M.



My little sister's dog Caesar all
wrapped up in his dog snuggie.


Teeny obviously threw a pawty
while we were out of town.


Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happiest Thanksgiving to YOU!

I just wanted to take a minute to thank all of you a furry Happy Thanksgiving! We will be in Minnesota [BRRR!] with my family until Sunday. It's still 80 degrees here in Austin, so traveling to a place where the HIGH is 19 will be seasonal shock.  We will be back [and all thawed out *paws crossed*] by Sunday. Until then, we won't be online as much as usual.  Teeny, Todd, Tootsie, and I hope you all have a fabulous Turkey Day and much to be thankful for!  In the meantime, click here for even more pics of adorable dogs all ready for Thanksgiving!







Monday, November 22, 2010

Don't Mess With Texas [Animals]!!!

Here in Austin there have recently been discussions about a Texas Animal Abuse Registry. Everyone has heard of the Sex Offender Registry; this is similar in concept, only this list is for those convicted for crimes against animals. It would list their name, address, and details of their crime. A photo of the offender would also be posted.

Here is how the proposed database would work: after a felony conviction of animal abuse, offenders 17 and up would be required to register. Much like a probation or parole officer, they would report to local law enforcement each year. If they are convicted more than once, they would be required to report to local law enforcement every 3 months.

Sounds good, right? But here's the catch - not all offenders would qualify to be on the registry. The registry would only apply to felony cases; in some counties, animal abuse is considered a class C misdemeanor.

It's not perfect, but I think it's a great idea.  Who wouldn't want to know if they were living next door to someone who had been convicted of animal abuse?  I've said it before and I will say it again:  they cannot speak for themselves; it's up to us to be advocates for the animals.  The deserve the right to protection as much as any human [and certainly more than any of the humans who are convicted of crimes against animals].  The horrors of animal abuse aside, it's common knowledge that many people who abuse animals later move on to crimes against humans.  A list like this could possibly help us catch some of these offenders before they take the life of another human being.

I want to know what YOU think about this bill! Great idea, or waste of taxpayer dollars? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below.

Click here for more information about the bill, if you are interested.


Monday, November 15, 2010

April Enjoying Her One-For-One Toy

Last week one of our Facebook fans, the lovely Jen, bought two of our one-for-one toys. She was kind enough to take pictures of her dog April (a rescued Boston Terrier ~ 3 cheers for rescue animals!!!) enjoying her toy. I think April is gorgeous, don't you? Thank you to Jen for sending in these photos- I love 'em!




Five Days Left in November Toy Drive

Just a friendly reminder: there are only five days left in our November toy drive at Austin Java!

If you are in the Austin, Texas area please stop by any of Austin Java's 3 central locations ~ City Hall (301 West 2nd Street), Barton Springs (1608 Barton Springs Road), or 12th/Lamar (1206 Parkway). Don't forget to bring a new or gently used dog toy to drop in our donation bins! All toys raised will go to the needy pups at Blue Dog Rescue.

Thank you for all your pawsome support!

Friday, November 12, 2010

IAMS Home 4 the Holidays October Results

I just received an email from the great folks at Iams who helped us with our successful  #TeenyIH4TH campaign last month. They released the Home 4 the Holidays results for October, and I had to share them with you guys!

In the month of October, they found forever homes for:
  • 150,037 dogs and puppies;
  • 131,956 cats and kittens; and
  • 6,191 other animals.
They also raised a total of 439,746 meals for dogs in shelters participating in the Home 4 the Holidays campaign.

A big *high paw* to everyone who participated and a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone at IAMS for making all this possible.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Teeny's Little Sister is Having Eye Surgery

Many of you are familiar with Tootsie, Teeny's miniature schnauzer little sister, who makes fairly regular appearances on this site (such as here and here). What you probably don't know is that Tootsie has been steadily going blind because of congenital cataracts in both of her little eyes. This has been going on for about a year now.

Our girl is only 5, but cataracts are apparently common amongst schnauzers- even at such an early age. Tootsie lives in a controlled environment, so this hasn't affected her quality of life much. She's mostly an inside dog, with a doggie door giving her access to our backyard as little or as much as she wishes. There aren't many surprises or new things she encounters on a day-to-day basis. But for those of us who know her well, we can tell slight differences. What others might write off as clumsiness (her running into the coffee table), we know better (she misjudged the distance between it and the couch). When I drop something (which happens often!) she gets more scared than she used to. It's been hard on us to watch. We've cried, talked about how unfair it is, wondered why we weren't able to protect her from this, been to specialists (dog opthamologists are a special breed of people... NoOffenseToAnyOutThere), and agonized over what to do. But we love her so much, and there was really only ever the one option for us: cataract surgery.

Every day I am so grateful we are able to afford to have the surgery done; many families cannot. Cataract surgery is 95% effective, according to our doctor. Tootsie will be having her surgery on Wednesday, January 19th. After the recovery period, she will be able to see again - and we couldn't be more excited for her!

Is anyone else out there going through this? If so, please know you are not alone. It sucks. Sorry, but there's no better way to put it. If anyone has any advice for pre and/or post surgery, I'd love to hear it. Likewise, if anyone is going through the beginning stages of this please don't hesitate to ask me for hints or tips - limited as though it may be, I am more than happy any advice I might have to give.


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Introducing Justin Beaver

Allow me to intoduce to you Teeny's new favorite toy: Justin Beaver (haha)!

Sent to Teeny by one of his best furry friends, Yoda the Dog (whose blog you can read here), Justin Beaver is quickly becoming toy numero uno.

Thank you Yoda!!! XoXo

Monday, November 8, 2010

A Funny Thing Happened Today

By "funny" I do not mean "haha" ... I mean funny as in weird, as in sad, as in odd, as in "whatthehelliswrongwithyoupeople?!?!"

Yesterday I stopped by the grocery store on the way home from the gym. As I pulled in, I noticed a black dog running around the lot, darting in and out of cars [both parked and moving]. I assumed she [it turned out to be a she] had hopped out of a vehicle and her owner would be in pursuit. By the time I found a parking space, it became clear this was not the case. It also became clear that NO ONE was going to try and catch the dog to help find it's owner. Every person in the lot would either stand and watch her for a second before going about their merry way or pretend not to notice- store employees included. The dog was obviously scared, and wouldn't come to me when I called her. It took me 20 minutes of following her around before anyone even tried to help me catch her. I was shocked at how many people walked right on by, assuming SOMEONE ELSE would help. Why are people so hesitant to step up to the plate and so content to let others take care of things? For each person that ignored the problem, the dog was that much more likely to get hit by a car or run away and never be found.

Some sweet man finally helped me catch her, and it turns out her name was Elvis. I walked Elvis to my car, turned on the A/C, and gave her some water. After a few minutes she realized I was there to help her and she began to trust me. Elvis had three numbers on her tag; no one answered at the first two. At the 3rd, a man answered. He was the father of the woman whose family owned Elvis. He also left messages for his daughter and son-in-law [the first two numbers on the tag] and advised me to look for a large red diesel truck in the lot, as that is what Elvis's family drove. As luck would have it, the truck was parked near me. I waited until the family came out to unload groceries and walked Elvis over to them. It turns out they had left Elvis in the bed of the truck unattended [with no water] while they shopped inside. At this point, it had been about an hour since I pulled into the store parking lot. I also had not received a call back from either of the two owners. When I approached Elvis's father, he barely looked at me, did NOT thank me, called Elvis a "bad dog," and made her hop back up in bed of the truck. [Although her owner did not thank me, I did receive two very sweet and grateful phone calls later; one from the father, and one from Elvis's "aunt" (as she referred to herself) who was the kind soul that originally found Elvis in a ditch and nursed her back to health as a gift for her sister.] It was much less about the lack of "thanking" than about the attitude of the owner in general.

My husband later pointed out to me that Elvis's dad might have been embarassed by the situation and that could explain why he acted the way he did. Maybe he was embarassed, and was unsure how to act when I approached him with his hot, tired, and thirsty dog who had been on the loose for an hour. I hope this is the case, and they provide a great home for Elvis- because she deserves it.

Next time you see a loose dog, I hope you think of this story. If everyone thinks "someone else will help" then NO ONE will ever help. As Ghandi said, "be the change you want to see in the world." In my case, the change was getting a scared dog back to her owners [although the jury is still out on whether or not they deserve her].

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Bulldog Puppy Can't Roll Over

I ran across this adorable video yesterday and had to share it with you guys. Please keep in mind that this is NOT cruelty on the part of the puppy's owner. This puppy must learn to roll over on its own, as there may be times that its owner/s are not home to help. If they owner helps him or her, it will never learn to do it on its own and might lie on its back until someone comes home. With that in mind, enjoy the cuteness!


And the conclusion: bulldog puppy rolls over. I just love a happy ending!



Monday, November 1, 2010

Teeny's Friends Tribune November 2010

(Click the newsletter for a larger version!)