Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow - time is certainly flying this fall! It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were so excited to see everyone in their costumes, trick or treating! And now, this week, we'll sit down and give thanks.

What are we giving thanks for this year? Most of all, that we've found so much support for the Biscuit Co. In less than six months we've confirmed that Ann Arbor is a town full of people who love their pets, and agree with our philosophy that pets are family. We're thankful for our neighbors and our regulars - people we didn't know a short while ago, and who now know exactly who Lucky and Millie are by sight! We're thankful for the friends we've made, and for all of you who have supported us. May this be the first Thanksgiving of many!

We truly do count our blessings that such great animals come by the store so regularly. Many of you do know our pets - Lucky, Millie, Indy, Smoker and Laudie - and we've come to know yours as well. We'd like to invite you to send us in pictures of your pets enjoying treats or toys that you've purchased at the store, so that we can add them to our Flickr set - "Animals We Love." Just attach the photo to an email, and send it to us at annarborbiscuit at gmail dot com.

And can you believe that this Friday is "Black Friday?" We're deep in preparations for the upcoming winter holidays - we've got some really fun things already in the store, and more on the way! So when you write out your list of who's been naughty & who's been nice - don't forget all of those good four legged furry family members, who deserve to have their stockings filled with something other than a lump of coal!

Cats deserve to be spoiled too!

When we first decided to open our store, we were very careful to express to our friends and family that we were opening a pet treat bakery. Not a dog treat bakery. A pet treat bakery. Because we know that dogs aren't the only kind of pets that people are passionate about.

We think that a lot of people are still under the impression that we're all about dogs, and only about dogs. Part of that misconception might be because Lucky and Millie are with us at the store everyday, and they're very obviously representing dogs as pets. But we're cat lovers too. When we first moved to Michigan, we were surprised to open the door to our new house and to find out that "the cats came with the house." That's how Smoker and Laudie joined our family. And if you think that our dogs are living the high life as treat and toy testers, you should see our cats - they don't even have to get up and go to work in the morning!

When you enter the store, just look to your right and there is a wall of cat items. Every day we have four kinds of organic treats - beef, chicken, seafood and catnip. Cat treats can be purchased by the dozen or by the ounce - and an ounce lasts a surprising amount of time (even with our spoiled girls!) We also have a variety of cat toys - happily tested by our girls for durability and playability. When we look for toys to stock, we look for companies that use all natural materials and organic catnip. We also like our cat toys to vary with the seasons - check back often to see what's new as the holidays progress.

Product Spotlight - Tuffie Toys

When we first opened, one of the things we kept hearing over and over again was that people had dogs who liked to destroy toys. Our dogs do it too - Lucky will work quietly and methodically until she's taken the eyes, or nose, or squeaker, off of any toy we give her. You should see some of the Frankenstein-esque toys we have around the house - toy carcasses tied together to squeeze every last bit of fun out of them possible.

We've been just as interested in finding toys that are sturdy, and can withstand even the most determined destructive dogs. So we've been really excited to discover Tuffie Toys - they're among the most durable toys we've ever come across. They're made from a layer of soft fleece, two layers of nylon, and a layer of PVC. They're assembled with seven seams, and then a layer of nylon coats the stitching. The squeakers are embedded in a safety pocket, nice for those dogs who zero in on the squeaker and just won't let it go. In the store we've been calling them "Tiger Toys" since the company did some of their market testing on Tigers in zoos - and even they couldn't destroy these toys!

Well, when we heard that even a tiger couldn't destroy the toys, we decided that we had to put them to the test ourselves. We all remember how sharp puppy teeth are? So we gave Millie, our official toy tester, one of the octopuses and let her have at it. Stop in and see the results - the toy still looks like new, and Millie was exhausted. Right now we've got all of these toys featured in our window, so give them a peak (or a squeak) and see what you think. So far we've been very pleased with their longevity (and that they tire Millie out...)