EFA Holiday Gift Guide for Dogs & Dog Lovers: Treasury

EFA Holiday Gift Guide

for Dogs & Dog Lovers: Treasury

curated by thedoghouse

in collaboration with theanimalsmagicshop

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

featuring:

rendachs, thebluewindmill, faeriegood,

brizel4TheAnimals, merlinsbarkproducts,

laineyspawtiques, DogBarks, TheModDog,

jessicalynneart, mvegan5, FeaturingAnimals,

and CiaoHound

Abundant Harvest !

All cultures have a harvest celebration and in the United States "Thanksgiving" comes the closest to fulfilling that role. Traditionally, Thanksgiving commemorates the proclamation put forth by Governor William Bradford, of the Plymouth Colony, calling all residents to come together on a November day in 1621 to give thanks to God for an abundant harvest. Afterwards there would be an enormous feast that would include their Native American neighbors.

Truth be told, the feast at that first Thanksgiving would have been a meager one if the whole community had not pulled together. The colonists had some luck with the local crops and the Native Americans had access to other food sources but it wasn't until they had put it together that they had anything resembling an abundant harvest.

That first Thanksgiving gathering reminds me of Team EFA. We have been called into a community and by bringing what we have to offer, we have the ability to create an abundant harvest. Some months my donations to the charity of the month seem meager, to say the least. But when I look at our team totals I am amazed. When we share what we have, we accomplish so much that is good.

On my list of things for which to give thanks this Thursday will be Etsy for Animals. EFA, of course, is what it is because of all the wonderful people who generously give of their time, talent and treasure to advocate and care for our animal friends. I hope that you also will pause for a moment and give thanks for our team, Etsy for Animals: Artists Helping Animals. And in the coming year may our harvest increase in abundance !

Have a good one,
Lynn of LolaLynn

EFA Challenge Coordinator

BOUNTiFUL HARVEST

curated by LolaLynn

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

featuring EFA members:

brizel4TheAnimals, SavageArtworks, rendachs,

AubreyMade, thebluewindmill, LolaLynn,

JMcGuinness, chicadolly, faeriegood, mvegan5,

theanimalsmagicshop, ArtByMarilyn, jessicalynneart,

thedoghouse, & AldanaMica

HAPPY THANKSGiViNG !

THANKS FOR RENEWiNG: EFA MEMBER TREASURY 1-2-3-4

A BiG THANK YOU

to all the sellers who renewed

their membership with Team EFA !

Every participating EFA shop (primary & beyond)

which completed the renewal process properly

will be featured in an upcoming Treasury :)

May your holiday season be prosperous

& thanks so much for being an EFA member !

# ONE

CANiNE GOODiES

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

featuring EFA members:

BarkingDogBlankets, JessicaLynneart, tiniestmonkey,

TinkleToots, kittyanydots, CiaoHound, carolcanvas,

thepurplehound, ExpressivePapers, ArtisticPaws23,

ThreeMuttsBakery, CanineDesign, BeanTownHandmade,

3pooches, creaturecomforts, & localevintage

# TWO

FELiNE GOODiES

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

featuring EFA members:

mvegan5, Beadmarkers, danacarol, whiskerkisses,

FantasyForest, PetCollage, TaraFlyPhotos,

VivaLeChat, WeeMef, thoseparasoldays,

TwoStrayCats, PrintablesShop, LolaLynn,

Catcalls, SnacknSnooze, & oceloteyes

# THREE

MAGiCAL GOODiES

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

featuring EFA members:

ElephantDance, cblandcompany, aeruffing,

WoodsEdge, ravensrepository, GardenDelightsArts,

elizabethruffing, faeriegood, WindandHoney,

walkonthemoon, thefaeriecupboard,

beadznstonezsupplies, thefrogbag, BeadedTail,

DebbyAremDesigns, & intuitivegoddess

# FOUR

BUNNY GOODiES

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

featuring EFA members:

KaysK9s, licoricewits, yarnmiracle, veganessa,

kittyempire3, SavageArtworks, PomegranatePenguin,

adorebynat, JMcGuiness, BestFriendsAvailable,

luniquejewellery, thebluewindmill, wovendreams,

johnsonfamilyzoo, bewhiskered, & TracyTeeter

PLEASE SUPPORT

YOUR TEAM MATES...

and promote these Treasuries

through your own online venues ?!

THANKS SO MUCH !

brought to you by...

Nicole of brizel4TheAnimals

EFA TEAM TREASURY: pet lover's & gift guides x2

efa--etsy for animals gift guide

curated by knitbyvalerie

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

***

pet lovers gifts $25.00 and under

curated by artchicnj

Click HERE to visit Treasury !

Last Call to Renew your EFA Membership ! THANK YOU EFA VOLUNTEERS !

LAST CALL to

RENEW YOUR EFA MEMBERSHiP

Well... this is it... its the 'day after' our formal Membership Renewal deadline.

After more than a handful of email & blog reminders... we are, of course, creating a Last Call opportunity for any Team EFA member that has not yet made the time to renew. Click HERE for information about the renewal process. You have an extension through this weekend !

EFA volunteers are now gearing up for phase 2 of our membership renewal work !

Meghann of LittleStudioJewels will be cleaning up the Yahoo Groups list and anyone on that email list who has not gone through the formal renewal process will be deleted from the Group list on the last day of the month.

Terri of blindsquirrel is sorting through all the renewal notices and placing all your EFA participating Etsy shop names on our new website Members list. This Member list is an alphabetical index of all Etsy shops owned by EFA members... this is a good place to reference what stores qualify as participating EFA businesses. All EFA shops listed here must have at least one product for sale that is tagged 'team efa' at all times and display our team information in either their Shop Announcements and/or Profiles. Please be sure to dbl check that you have done that !

Nicole of brizel4TheAnimals is busy creating Team EFA 'Thanks for Renewing' your membership Etsy Treasuries which will include an item from each of the above mentioned EFA participating shops. An ambitious project in its own right :) Please help to promote your team members & these treasuries by visiting, leaving a comment, & posting them on your FB, Twitter & Blogs !

Micky of Aldanamica is busy finalizing our new membership lists.

Emma of Urbanimal will be continuing her work on the website creating EFA member Profiles in the Shopping section... This Shopping section is an index of EFA members organized by their primary shop's name in their chosen main shopping category which represents the type of items they sell. Here you will find one EFA member profile for each of our members. All member profiles for shops that have chosen not to renew their EFA membership will be deleted from the website starting December 1st.

Michele of mvegan5, who is our Membership Director, is assisting members, both new & old, with their membership questions and... will soon be undertaking the task of creating a new Etsy Teams for Team EFA. If you need assistance regarding your membership, please contact Michele ! If you have decided not to renew- we ask that you remove your EFA team tags including our team affiliation information. Thanks so much !

I am grateful for... notebooks

by thisisit

THANK YOU EFA VOLUNTEERS !

These are busy times for everyone,

especially EFA volunteers...

Team EFA wants to

thank all our EFA volunteers,

including:

Lynn of LolaLynn

who is our Monthly Challenge Leader

Heather of thebluewindmill

who promotes your Monthly Challenge entries

Corinna of thefrogbag

who is Team EFA's Facebook Administrator

Patty of catcalls

who is Team EFA's Twitter Critter

EVA of CocoNMe

who is Team EFA's website & logo graphic designer

and lastly

a very BIG THANK YOU

to all the EFA blog contributors

that help to co-create a wonderful

animal friendly blog space !

HAPPY THANKSGiViNG !

Nicole of brizel4TheAnimals

Emergency Help: Ark R.A.I.N. Wildlife Sanctuary

Fire Tragedy

Emergency Help Needed

Ark R.A.I.N. Wildlife Sanctuary

"Early Friday morning, Co-Founders Tim and Toni Davies barely escaped a horrific fire that destroyed their home and wildlife sanctuary facility and took the lives of many, many beloved animals. The kangaroo Tucker and Obadiah the lion sustained facial burns, but have been treated and are expected to survive. Kinkajous, birds, tortoises, a bush baby monkey, dogs, cats and many other species died in the fire.

In the past, the sanctuary animals have been supported by Mobile Ark education programs featuring several Ark R.A.I.N. Wildlife Sanctuary animals. Most of the education animals perished in the fire, so help is desperately needed!

The co-founders home on the sanctuary premises, the offices and indoor small animal facility, along with several outside exhibits, all the animal supplies, animal feed, feed containers, indoor exhibits, office supplies, all equipment, and the Davies personal items were completely destroyed.

"

see full announcement HERE

"Ark R.A.I.N. Wildlife Sanctuary Inc. (ARWS) is a non-profit, 501-c-3 public charity. The Sanctuary is a "safe haven" that takes in animals for various reasons that are in need of special care and a loving place to reside the rest of their lives. For some animals ARWS is the last resort before euthanasia. We are currently home to around 60 species of rare, unusual, threatened or endangered animals, reptiles and birds from 6 continents. More than 160 creatures in all !

ARK's MiSSiON:

To Provide abundant love, protection, nutritional diets, natural habitats, specialized vet care, and quality rehabilitation for all of our animals.

To help save rare, threatened and endangered species and the environment by increasing public awareness with outreach programs presented by Mobile Ark, the education department of Ark R.A.I.N. Wildlife Sanctuary." their website HERE

***

from EFA member: BeansThings

The whole sanctuary as well as the founders' home which was on site, are gone. Over 50 critters and creatures died. They lost literally everything. Ark R.A.I.N. Wildlife Sanctuary has worked to save exotic animals (as well as all animals for that matter) for 14 years.

Here is the news story:

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13546527

Here is the sanctuary's website where you can make a direct donation to: http://arkrain.org/

I am gonna make some things in my shop and donate to this sanctuary. Here's one, 100% of the sale will be donated to Ark RAIN:

4 orange/brown Glass Bird Magnets

from EFA member: TwoStrayCats

I just heard some terrible news ....
Ark R.A.I.N wildlife sanctuary located in Tennessee was the victim of what seems to be arson and there sanctuary was burned to the ground on Friday night :( over 60 of the 100 exotic animals have lost their lives in this tragic fire :(

The caretakers of the animals barely made it out alive and have lost everything (they did not have insurance) if anyone is able to make a donation (no matter how small) these wonderful souls could sure use our help!

here is their facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ark-RAIN-Wildlife-Sanctuary/72010154309

here is a news link video piece on the fire that struck Ark RAIN... so so sad :(
http://www.wreg.com/videobeta/7a021c41-3882-46f3-aa0b-ea608fb31c63/News/Animals-Killed-In-Fire-Help-Needed

Please share, tweet, facebook to get the word out there :)

I have put this little guy on sale ... 100% of the sale will be donated to Ark RAIN:

Lil Monkey - a Soft Friend for you

from EFA member LolaLynn:

How heart breaking and terribly sad !

Here's my 2 donations for ARK - 100% donations:

emerald-kitty-hand-embellished-5x7-print

kopper-kitty-hand-embellished-5x7-print

***

If you would like to donate

100% of an Etsy listing...

please leave a comment below

with the url link to your item !

THANKS SO MUCH

Teachable Moment: Here Come the Sea Lions !

Teachable Moment:

Here Come the Sea Lions !

by Emily of YarnMiracle

Let me provide the answer to a question that I know you've been losing sleep over for years: How do you tell a sea lion from a seal?

The secret is the ears. Sea lions and seals are both marine mammals, spend most of their day in the ocean looking for food, have flippers and a nice thick layer of blubber to keep them warm in cold water. But sea lions have a small sticky out ear flap where seals only have holes. That all there is to it: check the ears !

You'll have to check from a distance though, while sea lions are generally considered social animals, one solid ton of bull (male) sea lion is still pretty intimidating - even if he is shy. The females (cows) are much smaller at *only* 700 pounds apiece and newborns weigh in at a mere 50 pounds. The pups catch up pretty quickly - they will hit 200 pounds around 1 year of age.

Sea lions wear some of the smartest pants in the Pinnipedia family. (Pinnipedia means "wing foot" or "feather foot" - a reference to their flippers.) In captivity, they have been taught tricks for entertainment and the US Navy has trained them to help patrol ports. Training methods center on lots and lots of positive reinforcement in the form of fish, praise, fish and more fish.



When left to their own devices, sea lions can dive up to 600 feet deep to round out their fish-focused diet with squid, crabs, and clams located with the help of those crazy whiskers. Nostrils that automatically close up when they enter the water help them stay submerged for up to 40 minutes at a time! Between that and top swimming speeds of 25mph, sea lions have a decent chance of escaping their only marine enemies: killer whales and sharks.

Another protection against their natural predators is their extremely social nature. Sea lions like to live in enormous groups called "colonies" - these groups can contain thousands of sea lions and are divided into smaller sub groups. There might be plenty of coastline available, but they prefer to stay packed shoulder to shoulder, relaxing and soaking up the sun.



Colonies (called "rookeries" when the pups are young) are noisy places. Everyone talks at once in the variety of honks, barks, roars and trumpets that they use to express themselves. A baby can find his Mom just by the sound she makes.



There are seven known species of sea lion - but only six are still around. The Japanese Sea Lion has been extinct since the 1950s. Their disappearance caused researchers and conservationists to put a greater focus on sea lion preservation. There are now international laws to help protect sea lions, the Stellar Sea Lion continues to decline and the California Sea Lion is doing quite well.

One More Click

The Marine Mammal Center
The San Diego Zoo's seallion page
Sea lion Facts and Information
The US Navy's Marine Mammal Program
One of several Pentagon Channel Clips (video) about the US Navy's work with marine mammals