Awesome 'possum

Here's what Bettye wrote today about one stuffed opossum sent by Express Mail:

Subject: RE: Fulfillment of Order #17427

He's AWESOME!! Thank you

Bettye, thanks for your e-mail. We love him/her, too!

:) Sheryl

Is this the plastic salmon we've all been waiting for?

PLASTIC SALMON - BRAND NEW IN OUR STORE!

Unless you've been looking for small plastic trout or salmon yourself, you would not believe how many queries we get for a plastic fish like this one! And finally we found it! Check it out in Tapir and Friends online store! We're calling it a salmon for reasons you can read on its very own description page (follow the link above), but if you need a small plastic trout, this could also be the fish for you. These toys or replicas have been extremely hard to find! The description, price, and order info can all be found via the link above.

Seven more pieces of hand-painted animal jewelry

Mountain Lion / Cougar Pin

I've photographed seven more pieces of our hand-painted, stunningly beautiful realistic animal jewelry and have added them to our new web site. You can visit this page to order and see our collection to date. These pins, made in the USA, can also be used as bold tie tacks. We also have the smaller tie tacs available in some designs. Please ask! (503) 325-3179.

Whippet Pin

Airedale Terrier Pin

Bluebird Pin

Hawk Pin

Lion Pin

Moose Pin

Great customer service!

Hi Sheryl,

Thank you so much for the great customer service with this order! My daughter is very excited to get these animals and it will make her project a great success! She's been working all day on her report and I'm glad that we decided to add these for her! You've been so helpful, and I will try to let you know when we receive the order in case you're interested. I will definitely keep your website in mind in the future!

Thanks again!

Cindy in Michigan

Animal jewelry (fish jewelry) - yellowfin tuna and bluefin tuna - in colors bound to charm you!

These two attractive tuna pins can be found in Tapir and Friends Online Gift Shop. They are hand-painted in the USA. The yellowfin tuna (top) comes in a variety of paint finishes, some more subdued than the one seen here. These make wonderful gifts, and can be used as hat pins, lapel pins, and bold tie tacs. While the yellowfin tuna is still found abundantly, the bluefin tuna has been fished to critical levels. It might make a good mascot for fish-loving conservationists. Tuna are interesting fish in that, like the mackerel, they have warm blood, whereas most fish are cold-blooded. This gives them the ability to survive in a wider range of water temperatures and gives them great strength for swimming and for fighting the prospect of being caught. Possibly this is one of the reasons tuna have been so popular among sports fishers. They are also, of course, highly sought for food by humans.

New plastic cockroaches and other insects!

Charming? Creepy? Useful? We have a number of new plastic insects in our online gift shop! Check them out in Tapir and Friends online animal store! Scroll down for our new plastic bees, plastic house flies, plastic praying mantis, plastic centipede and more. What fun!

Beanie Babies - second time around

I discovered the world of cute and lovable Beanie Babies a little later than many. I don't collect the collectibles or price check for rarity. One day Lee and I found a cache of used, great-condition Beanie Babies at a garage sale, and we were hooked. They were adorable. They had names. What fun! There were so many. The price was right, and we bought them for our online animal store. Putting them online was a bit labor-intensive because there were so many individuals, but it was fun. Then we saw that people were finding them, and that selling just the right beanie to someone who was looking for it made them happy. It made us happy to know they had found the one they were looking for!

At The Seattle Gift Show several years ago, I learned that the Ty company will only sell to brick and mortar businesses, not to online-only retailers. That's what we were at the time, so as far as buying new beanies, we were out of luck. Since then, we've moved into our own brick and mortar place (actually, mostly wood, on pilings over the Columbia River) but we haven't sought out the Ty company, we still look for great-condition used Beanie Babies that need new homes. We try to keep our beanie web page updated and give you the info you need about the tag condition. We have fun searching out beanies and enjoying them while they're in our shop. We sell them both in the "brick and mortar" shop and on the Internet. One way or the other, come check them out! We keep the prices at a stable $4.00 per Beanie Baby. Sometimes you can find the more unusual ones in our shop, and the price is still the same. We also carry Beanie Buddies when we can find them (the fur is SO soft it's almost unbelievable), Attic Treasures, Teenie Beanies, and other cute animals and characters by Ty. It's so much fund finding new ones!

When we moved into our store, I took the beanies out of their dark, dull plastic bins that had served well when we were only online, and I put them into a bright purple display box in our showroom. It's so colorful, it's a delight to walk into our shop each day and see their adorable faces looking at me! The picture below was taken in poor light at the end of the day. As soon as I can, I'll try to remember to get a nice new photo that shows the colors!

Overstocked on plastic camels! Get yours today at a 15% discount!

Dear Camel Fans,

At Christmas we overstocked on these realistic and charming plastic Bactrian camels (two humps) from Safari, Ltd. It's as simple as that. During Christmas 1996, we couldn't keep enough in stock, so this year we decided to be prepared! As it turned out, we over-prepared, bought too many, and on top of that, it turned out not to be a big camel year for us. We have lots of them left! So, we're offering them to you at a discount. When you visit our web site to purchase your camel, the price you'll see in your shopping cart is the regular price. There is a COMMENTS BOX when you check out. Please make a note that you would like the 15% discount as advertised on our blog. We'll make the deduction as we process your order. Come see our plastic camels! Or, make us an offer for a larger quantity. Call us at (503) 325-3179 (West Coast Time, USA).

The (plastic) bee and the grasshopper

No, this is not a tale of love or woe, but a warm welcome to two new critters in our animal gift shop. As usual, we like to take close-up photos that let you see what you're getting before you buy (click each image for a larger view). These two lovely creatures cooperated very nicely. For details and sizes on these two plastic insects, please see our web site. You can order online or call us at (503) 325-3179 (West Coast, USA). We'll be adding about ten more insects this week. I took the photos last weekend. Lee and I are working to get them online. Call if you're looking for something you don't see. We may have it!

Animal jewelry - malamute dog

Here's another of the gorgeous hand-painted pewter dog pins we have in stock at TPF's Painted Animal Pins. Come see our dog jewelry and other animal jewelry. It may be just what your looking for for a special gift!

Animal jewelry: Black chow dog pin, red chow pin - hand-painted and beautifully realistic!

These two chow dogs are among the huge selection of realistic animal jewelry in our store - available today! Each painted pin, hand cast and hand painted in the USA is available for $25.00. We have hundreds of designs that are not pictured on our site yet but are in stock! Call us at (503) 325-3179 for information or to place an order. You can also order securely online. Scroll down to the list of available animal jewelry! At TPF's Animal Jewelry, we are here to help!

Adorable Shih Tsu dog jewelry!

Newly photographed for our animal jewelry collection is this charming Shih Tsu dog. Hand-painted on a detailed pewter casting that was also made by hand in the USA, this dog has two pins in the back, making it ideal for wearing on a blouse, shirt, hat, scarf, or wherever you can pin it onto a piece of fabric. The pins are sturdy with pinch clasps. There are two pins so the jewelry doesn't rotate while you're moving about. Stays nicely in place on any fabric. The pin can also be used as a large tie tack. Makes a beautiful gift for a dog-loving friend or a wonderfully unique heirloom-quality keepsake for yourself. These hand-made pieces, each painted individually, are so realistic that the dog seems to have a life and personality all its own. And the price is only $25.00. Call us at (503) 325-3179 for information or to place an order. You can also order securely online. Scroll down to the list of available animal jewelry! At TPF'S Animal Jewelry, we are here to help!

Yikes! Two of our very popular items have been discontinued!

Today we sold our last plastic nautilus and our last blue-spotted octopus. We're so sad to see them go! They were discontinued by the manufacturer, unfortunately. They were popular in our shop, but maybe not so much in other retail stores. This situation happens fairly regularly. We stock unusual and hard-to-find realistic animal replicas. They are a wonderful discovery for those looking for them, but may not be the top sellers made by the manufacturer. One of the reasons our customers find us online is just because the item they were looking for could not be found in local stores. You can be sure we'll be on the lookout for something to replace these wonderful aquatic creatures, and if you see such a thing, please let us know by e-mail! The plastic nautilus was 2 3/4 inches long and the small spotted octopus was 2 inches at the longest point. We have lots more octopi (none with spots), but no other nautilus. We do have clams, snails, sea cucumbers, and a host of other sea creatures. Check out our great collection today!

"STUFFED OCTOPUS!!! I LOVE HER"

This was the subject line of an e-mail we received the other day. The stuffed octopus in question is Olive, pictured above. For several years she's been one of our gift shop's most popular stuffed animals. Our customer wrote:

Thanks so much for the rush [shipping]. The party is tonight and my friend will LOVE her. She's gonna give her a great home.

Thanks again!!!

You can read more about Olive Octopus on her own web page. Our stuffed octopus has a beautifully engaging orange eye and her tentacles curl back to position when you pull them stright. She has real personality and is a favorite for both online buyers and visitors to our showroom. We have quite a few octopus items for sale online. Check them out!

Unusual hand-made animal jewelry

This unique hyena jewelry by Corinna Bechko

comes in earrings, pin, or pendant.

If you like unusual animal jewelry, don't miss these original-design hand-made lightweight aluminum pieces by Corinna Bechko. At Tapir and Friends Wildlife World Online Gift Shop, we've been working with Corinna for almost a dozen years. Order online from us, and within a few days she completes your jewelry in her studio in California and ships directly to you wherever you live. Currently she makes fourteen different animals. Any one of them can be ordered as a pin, pendant, or earring set. We offer a number of truly interesting colors for the body of the animal; after that, your animal jewelry becomes truly customized when you select a bead color to go with the earrings or pendant. Corinna has a terrific selection of artistically-designed beads to go with any of the aluminum animals. We've seen some combinations that are analogous and subtle, and others that are amazingly exotic, such as purple with yellow bead, or red with . . . well, sometimes our customers just say, "Choose whatever bead you think looks good." We've never been disappointed, and our customers love her work.

Corinna Bechko is not only an artist, but she also has a degree in zoology. She worked at the Los Angeles Zoo in the research division and has volunteered at a wild animal rehab center in Southern California. Her favorite animals there were the opossums - she actually took a class in how to handle and rehabilitate opossums. She continues to work with wild animals. Corinna attended the Jewelry Arts Academy in Manhattan. The Los Angeles resident is also an author and filmmaker. What a lucky day it was for us in the mid-1990s when she discovered our web site and suggested we might want to see the jewelry she makes! At the time we were located in the tiny town of Palisade, Colorado. We later moved to Astoria, Oregon, where our association with Corinna continues. Working together over the years, we've made a lot of people happy, which makes all of us happy, too. Corinna's work is classy, and the prices are affordable. Making these beautiful pieces of animal jewelry is a labor of love for Corinna. She donates the cost of postage so we can put that much more toward the conservation of wild habitats. Please check out our page of Corinna's special animal jewelry. Here you can see all of the animal designs and a few of the delightful color combinations we've had in the shop as samples. Tame or wild, you decide!

Dog jewelry - Australian Shepherd

Look at this beautiful, realistically-painted piece of dog jewelry. This pin depicts an Australia Shepherd in its natural colors. For more dog jewelry and other animal jewelry, come check us out at TPF's Animal Jewelry. Be sure to scroll down past the pictures for links to more jewelry items that are not yet pictured on the menu.

Animal jewelry: Standing horse and running ponies

Animal jewelry - horses - made in the USA

Click the photo of the charming horse jewelry above for a larger view. These are the only three hand painted horse pins we have in stock today. Each sells for $29.00. We have several available in metal finishes (call for details: (503) 325-3179). We also have three horse heads in bronze finish (not pictured). As always, these beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces of animal jewelry can be ordered from our web site. Also, don't miss the donkey jewelry elsewhere on this blog.

Our new display racks - what a shock!

One of our suppliers, Safari, Ltd, invited Sue and me to visit their facility in Florida. In January, we spent a very pleasant day with them seeing their new products for 2008, etc. And we talked about our display needs. They had a beautiful lucite display rack that had been discontinued in favor of a new more modular style. They offered us the old one if we'd pay shipping. What a deal! We loved it. When we got home, they calculated shipping at about $280.00. Done! Again, what a deal - from Florida to Oregon. Nice. When it arrived, we were so excited. Our old display rack for plastic animals had been temporary, and we were looking forward to something that would work better for us and look cleaner. So, the day the delivery arrived, we were excited. "Wait," the guy said, "I have some big boxes on this truck." "Yeah, we know they're going to be big," we said. "But," he butted in, "I'd check out this shipping rate before I signed for them." What??? We'd authorized $280.00, and now they wanted over $2,000.00? Somebody misplaced a decimal point. Long story short, the racks went into the shipping company's storage facility in Astoria while Safari went to bat for us. As it turned out, the mistake had been in the estimate and the shippers were holding out for the $2000.00 plus. A week or so went by and finally Safari had made a little progress with them, but not much. In the end, Safari paid the lion's share and we paid our originally-agreed portion. We want to thank Safari in a big way for this. They were fantastic! And, our new racks moved in.

Here we're in the process of loading in carefully-chosen items that will relieve some of our storage issues in the back and make a nice display for the customers.

The cardboard boxes went into the recycling bin, but we got a bonus out of the deal - enough bubble wrap to last awhile (and I took the photo after much of it had been stored). We were happy. We recycle everything we can, and we won't be having to buy new bubble wrap for quite some time.

I thought I'd like to end with this. You can see this poster on the wall in Picture 2. And yes, that's a lowland tapir near the center on the left. The Safari poster rack can be seen on the right in Picture 2. We carry a number Safaris' beautiful posters, but they're not online yet.

Click any photo for a bigger view.

Special sale on sea otter and spotted seal children's drinking cups!

Until our overstock is depleted, contact us for discounts on our spotted sea and sea otter plastic children's drinking cups! Usually $3.00 each, we are selling from one to a quantity at $1.50 each (US dollars) until our supply is down. Call (503) 325-3179 (West Coast time, USA) or send e-mail. Thanks! Thse cups are colorful, kid-friendly, dishwasher safe, and have been tested for paint and plastic safety. They are made in China for K&M International, a US distributor who has the highest standards in safety and quality. You'll see their products at major zoos and animal attractions, or shop on our web site. Buy from us, and you help save rainforest habitat. Online with integrity for nearly 12 years. As of this post date, the sale price is not on our site. Either call us or send e-mail, or if you order from the site, put a note in the comments box that you found our sale on the blog. We will adjust the price for you before we process your credit card.

Chocolate wombats?

I heard today from an American who has just come back from Australia that Australians do Easter a little differently than we do in the U.S. Since they don't like rabbits that much (see the history of Australia and the importation of rabbits in 1859 - that's the second importation, not the first) they don't want to see chocolate bunnies at Easter. Instead, they make chocolate wombats. What you see above is NOT a chocolate wombat, but a plastic wombat from our online gift shop. It may not taste as good (and we recommend that you don't eat it anyway), but it's non-sticky, non-fattening, won't cause dental cavities, and you can keep it around for years to come. Also, plastic wombats do not breed. I'm not sure about chocolate ones.