We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was low-key for ABR and the hounds and there were lots of belly rubs given to work off the extra piece of apple pie we ate.

As we begin the official holiday season we wanted to remind everyone how easy it is to support the beagles and get your Chanukah and Christmas shopping done at the same time. We are an iGive participant, which means you can do most of your online shopping for the holidays and we receive a percentage of the sales. For many stores, including Best Buy, you can place an order online and do an in-store pick-up (thus avoiding shipping charges).

iGive is a great way to shop during the holidays - many retailers are offering crazy bargains and free shipping and stuff. Odds are with over 700 online retailers you'll find a store you already shop at. Zappos is on there and anyone who loves shoes loves Zappos.  You can also shop at Macy's and Clinique and 1-800-Flowers and a host of other places you probably normally shop at anyway.

At no cost to you a percentage of the sale is donated by the retailer to us. iGive also has a toolbar you can install that gives us $0.02 for every web search you do and if you're logged in will also check and see if any sites you are shopping can go through iGive. It's very handy since I frequently just type in a store name without going to iGive.com first.

You can also help by shopping through any of the Amazon links on the website. We have a wish list set up but you don't have to buy for us - if you start your Amazon session through any of our links our associate ID gets registered and we will get a percentage of your purchase no matter who you're shopping for.

We have had some people inquire about gifts for the dogs. Tennis balls, squeaky toys and deer antlers for chewing are big hits around here. Squeaky toys don't last very long, so we are fans of the kind that come in strong canvas. Occasionally though we supervise a free for all plush squirrel or bee "kill" fest. These sweet beagles are determined when it comes to getting at the squeaker and the stuffing flies! If you would like to make a toy donation you can either use our online "virtual" donation or contact us for a ship to address.

And finally we have our Zazzle store up and running. More products are being added daily, so please check back often.