Our 2011 Petting Zoo Success!

This year’s SARF Petting Zoo was a great success! We received so many adoption applications that we’re still going through them. Of course the volume of applications unfortunately means that we’re also having to decline more applications than ever before .
If you were not awarded the SA you wanted, know that you are in good company. All of our applicants were excellent candidates… We simply can only choose one person per stuffed animal. And if you weren’t selected to adopt your requested SA, never fear: We promise to have new animals up for adoption within the next few weeks. Please keep checking back.
And if you’re still waiting to find out the status of your application, we will be sending out notifications very soon…
Thank you all so much for supporting the cause!

To see the status of your requested SA, check our Successful Placements section.

Hasselbeck with Guelah (Photo Credit- Gather.com)

Permanent SARF Resident Platypus (Guelah) Featured on The View

Guelah, a platypus and longtime permanent resident of The Stuffed Animal Rescue Foundation, was contacted by ABC’s morning television show, The View, to give an official comment regarding the controversial photos of Rielle Hunter which appeared in GQ magazine in early 2010. Elizabeth Hasselbeck, one of the show’s hosts, read a snippet from Guelah’s rather lengthy statement on the air:

The matter is complicated. On one hand, we would all be honored to be featured in GQ. However, we’re concerned about the fact that the stuffed animals featured might not actually belong to Ms. Hunter. At a time when there are so many needy stuffed animals out there, we wish more people would consider adopting abandoned animals from local stuffed animal shelters rather than buying them new… I’m available for interviews via e-mail or chat as I don’t actually speak out loud.

Credit- AP Photo/GQ, Mark Selinger

Though we are extremely grateful for Ms. Hasselbeck’s interest in the opinions of our organization, we do feel that many of Guelah’s more important points were excluded from the segment. Also, it appears that some viewers did not believe the response was actually written by our dear stuffed friend. Some even implied that statement was in fact written by The View’s team of writers. However, we can assure you that Guelah spent several hours formulating his thoughtful response.

Check out The SARF on TV

KEYE TV featured The S.A.R.F. on their news show We Are Austin Live! Click the image below to watch the feature.

SARF T-Shirts For Sale on CafePress!

We’re now selling this snazzy S.A.R.F. t-shirt design in an assortment of sizes and shapes via Cafe Press. Click here to take a look!

More merch coming soon!

Check out the article about The SARF in Austin Monthly!

Austin Monthly magazine featured The SARF in their summer 2011 issue. Robyn Ross interviewed us about our origins and our rehabilitation processes. It features a fun photo by infamous Austin photographer Annie Ray. Click the photo to read the full article.

S.A.R.F. permanent resident Marcel Lumpovitz, aka Lumpy, underwent surgery today to remove a stuffed flower growth from his hand/abdomen(ish). The procedure was quick and virtually painless, and he is recovering nicely. Lumpy says he’s excited about regaining use of his right hand and that he’s looking forward to feeling pertinent in seasons other than spring.

The stuffed flower is also doing fine.

We’re revamping our website! Please excuse the mess. It will be new and improved and all complete in the next week or so! Thanks! Come back soon-

We’ll be having our first non-37th St. petting zoo on Sunday! Tongue & Groove Theatre is having a fundraiser party for their upcoming production of The Red Balloon, and we’ll be there with SA’s in tow. Come support a good cause (really great play… if you didn’t see it last year, you’re lucky it’s happening again!), and meet some new Rescued Stuffed Animals. There will be music, and, well… people juggling fire (but not too close to the SAs!). Doors open at 5:30. The petting zoo will be open all night. Purchase tickets here: HERE

Well, it’s time for this year’s Stuffed Animals to head home for the holidays. Sure, most of them don’t have real homes yet, but they do have friends to visit. So, tonight is the last night of this year’s petting zoo. It’s been a fun though rather rainy few weeks. We hope everyone enjoyed meeting the new SA’s, and we look forward to reading all of your adoption applications. If you applied, you will be receiving an email from us in the next few days!
Happy holidays!

Visit the petting zoo and meet the new SA’s! We’ve already received several adoption applications, so The SARF headquarters is buzzing with hopefulness. Oh, and this year you also have the option of filling out an application on paper at the petting zoo!

Vincent- Webbed Accessibility Expert

Stop by and meet the panelists at the convention center. They’re around the corner from the Legos…

They’ll begin their Q&A Twitter panel at 2 p.m. Send us your questions! Follow @thesarf

#thesarf

Vincent
Webbed Accessibility Expert
As a stuffed amphibian, Vincent knows the challenges of webbing firsthand. Typing is slow going, even on the most ergonomic keyboards. And forget texting. Plus, Vincent also suffers from a condition called Bug Eye, which affects pupil dilation. He will discuss the challenges webbed SA’s face in the digital age.

Lawrence
Marketing
Lawrence has been working in marketing for ten years, and he’s seen a lot of changes in his time. He has overcome many stereotypes in his career, having started out as a district sales rep for the Chiquita company, and he is now the owner of his own online marketing consulting firm. He is the host of our panel today.

James Cayce (aka) Don
Soft-Spoken Bodyguard / SA Yoga Instructor
Don likes the Internet. He’s cool with it. He likes to plan his workouts online, and he’s interested in using the web to promote his life-coaching business. In his spare time, he perusing the advertising on MySpace and reading Steinbeck on his Kindle.

Janice (aka Janus)
Color Breathing Therapist
Janus, a licensed Color Breathing Therapist, is caught between two worlds- The Blessed and The Mystical. She is opposed to computer usage of any kind, as she feels it disturbs one’s electromagnetic balance. She recommends that frequent users seek immediate attention for their blocked charkas and that they discontinue their vibrational-disturbing activities at once.

We’re sitting in a panel about Twitter, gearing up for our own panel tomorrow! Since SA’s don’t actually talk, we’ll be Tweeting our dialogue. Be sure to follow ‘thesarf’. We’ll be sending out exact time information soon!

It’s that time again. SXSW.

This year, The SARF is participating in the SXSW Interactive festivities. We will be sponsoring a panel on Monday entitled “Gorilla Marketing: SA Accessibility and the Immobile Web” (CC).

Our experts will be on hand to answer questions to the best of their abilities, given that they do not talk and very rarely gesture on their own.