Tag Archives: animals

Feb19

Hi! My Name Is…

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Hi! My Name Is…

Hiii everyone and TGIF! Okay, so if you read one of my previous posts, It’s A Boy!, you’ll know that my family recently just adopted a new sweet addition to our home. We finally have decided on a name for our little pup…and “Ollie” stuck! From the very beginning, my mom and I were very pro Ollie but my dad unfortunately was not on board. BUT after almost an entire week of my mom and I calling him Ollie, my dad finally came around! Is he happy about it? I don’t know. But I knew my mom and I had this small victory in the bag when I heard my dad calling him Ollie last night! Score!

My dad snapped some pictures of our little peanut bear and his Golden Retriever big sister, Gem, yesterday so take a look at our dog children:

^^^ Lol, that second picture kills me! #selfie

We are so happy to have our Ollie Bear and Gem and we are extremely thankful to the rescue group, Canine Lifeline, for helping to make them part of the Mushenheim family! Be sure to check out their website and give their Facebook page a like as well! 🙂

Oh, by the way, Ollie says “thank you” to everyone for all of the sweet compliments on my previous post about him! He was so flattered! Happy Friday! Much love. -Sarah

Feb17

It’s A Boy!

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It’s A Boy!

Hi everyone and happy Hump Day! I hope the week is going fabulously so far for all of you. On Valentine’s Day my family said “yes” to opening our home to a sweet baby boy. His name is…Well, he doesn’t have a name yet but he’s the cutest little stinker on the planet. He has four legs, soft fur, a tail, and ears that stand up like a bunny. He’s not a cat, he’s not a tiger, nor an armadillo. Baby No Name is a dog! Take a look at the newest edition to the Mushenheim family:

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^^^ It’s A Boy…Dog!! ❤

My family works closely with the amazing rescue group, Canine Lifeline, so of course we adopted baby bear through them! Our Golden Retriever and peanut’s big sister, Gem, was also adopted through CLL two years ago. Both pups came from a rural shelter in Kentucky and ended up being taken in by CLL a few states away in Ohio. My family has been thinking of adopting a new dog for quite some time and this feeling was intensified when my sister moved to her own apartment, taking her rescue pup, Winston, with her.

After looking through the dogs available for adoption on CLL’s website daily, we finally came across our peanut. On February thirteenth, we took him home for the day and over night to see how he would interact with Gem. We bathed him, cuddled him, and played our time away and by Valentine’s Day, we were smitten. Not only did we adore him but Gem got along with him just fine and is very excited about her new little brother!

Peanut is the most precious little pup and he’s definitely a change of pace from all of the other sweet dogs that we’ve had throughout the ages. We’ve never had a dog as small as him before so it’s been fun being able to pick him up and hold him like the baby he is! The only problem we’ve had thus far is that we can’t come up with a name for the life of us!

From the moment my mom and I picked peanut up on the thirteenth, we’ve been spit balling names like nobody’s business. We are both dead set on his name being “Oliver” but calling him “Ollie” for short. Unfortunately, my dad isn’t quite sold on that idea yet. So now, I need everyone’s help! Asides from doing me a solid and visiting CLL’s website and giving their Facebook page a like, I want your suggestions on what to name peanut! In case you forgot what he looks like, here’s another darling pic of our baby:

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^^^ I LOVE THIS DOG!!!!

My family is so proud to have our household be little peanut’s “forever home” and we can’t wait to begin making memories with him! What do you think we should name our baby boy? Do you have a pet adoption story to share? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Jan21

ANIMAL LOVERS UNITE!!!

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ANIMAL LOVERS UNITE!!!

Hello everyone and welcome to a very important post on lifewithlilred brought to you by the amazing work of Ohio rescue group, Canine Lifeline. There is a sweet pup named Sapphire who desperately needs help here in Ohio. I am sending out the Bat Signal and asking all of my readers to meet Sapphire, read her story, share this post, and please donate if you can to help pay for her extensive medical care:

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Sapphire’s Story:

“Sapphire, the emaciated young stray dog, who came to us from the Mahoning County Dog Warden last Wednesday, was transferred yesterday from Macedonia Vet Clinic to the Akron Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center for an ultrasound since she continued to eat very little and appeared to be declining. Her white blood cell count was through the roof and continually rising indicating some type of infection but nothing definitive could be seen on x-rays. The ultrasound this morning showed some foreign masses in her abdomen so she underwent exploratory surgery there this afternoon. Fabric material was found in her stomach and intestinal tract. Her stomach had to be opened to remove this material. Her intestine had been perforated in 5-6 places from having this material in there for so long and was the source of the infection so 16 inches of her intestine were removed. The fact that she survived 2+ hours of surgery in her emaciated state is truly amazing but we had to try as it was the only thing that was going to save her. The surgeon told us that her prognosis is guarded at this point due to the risk of sepsis and will be touch-and-go over the next few days. We are grateful to the extraordinary staff at the Akron Veterinary Referral Center for taking such good care of Sapphire and giving her a chance at a happy and healthy life. Her vet bills are already in the many thousands of dollars so PLEASE consider making a tax-deductible donation to Canine Lifeline to help us save Sapphire. Online donations may be made on our website at www.caninelifeline.org or a check may be sent to Canine Lifeline, PO Box 25742, Garfield Hts OH 44125. THANK YOU!”

Other than visiting CLL’s website, you can also go to their Facebook page for additional information especially if you would like to get in touch with one of their incredible founders or volunteers. Please, please, please share Sapphire’s story and ANY donations are much needed and forever appreciated. Much love. -Sarah

Aug12

Island Boat Lines Wildlife Tour

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Island Boat Lines Wildlife Tour

Hellooo everyone and happy Hump Day! So as you know, this week on lifewithlilred I’ll be discussing a different highlight of my Orlando, Florida vacation every day. Last Thursday my family took a break from hanging out at Universal Studios to go on an amazing wildlife tour through Island Boat Lines. We drove about an hour away to the 1,000 Islands of Cocoa Beach and boarded our “tour boat” in search of dolphins, manatees, and birds. I got to see some wildlife that we definitely don’t have in Ohio, so take a look at some pics and let’s get to it!

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The Island Boat Lines wildlife tour is two full hours of exploring the 1,000 Islands with the boat captain and two naturalists who are all extremely knowledgeable. Not only did I get to see a lot but I also learned so much from them as well! After a quick lesson on boat etiquette our tour began and within ten minutes of sailing we saw our first manatee! Unfortunately, these sweet and shy creatures were very difficult to photograph but let me tell you: THEY’RE SO CUTE!!! It was so fun to see their big ol’ bodies bobbing along in the water. The entire time I just wanted to jump out of the boat and pet them. We saw five or six manatees on our tour and of course there were more but they are pretty hard to spot because they blend in with the water so well.

All throughout our tour we saw an abundance of birds like pelicans, herons, storks, and anhingas. They were everywhere!! It seemed like wherever we looked they were perched in their trees, in flight, or in the stork’s case just hanging out in someone’s backyard. I’ll admit that I’m not much of a bird gal, I had two parakeets once…and they died…But that’s neither here nor there. The point is, that it was really cool to see these majestic creatures up close and personal because Ohio obviously doesn’t have anhingas flying around every time you turn a corner.

Not only did we see our fair share of animals but we also saw a lot of plants and flowers native to Florida. I was very excited to see a Naked & Afraid staple of the Mangrove Tree, myself! It was such a nice change to see vivid blossoming flowers and palm trees rather than the yellow grass and weeds that I’m used to in my neck of the woods. Speaking of grass, did you know that palm trees are actually a type of grass? You didn’t? ME EITHER!! #wildlifetour101

Everything that I got to see on the tour was awesome but the most memorable part of the wildlife cruise was seeing the dolphins!!!! During our two hour ride we saw eight to ten playful dolphins splashing and jumping about and it was something that I will never ever forget. Like the manatees, they were next to impossible to photograph but rest assured that they are  gorgeous! The major highlight of the tour was seeing two dolphins, a big and a little one, jumping at the same time. It looked like something you would see in a movie and I got to experience it first hand. Most importantly, I got to witness such beautiful creatures in their natural habitat doing what they do best…avoiding getting their picture taken. -_- 😉

If you are ever in the Orlando, Florida area, I seriously cannot recommend the Island Boat Lines wildlife tour enough. All of their information can be found on http://www.islandboatlines.com or they can be reached at 321-454-7414. Make sure to check them out!!

So there you have it, my Island Boat Lines Wildlife Tour experience! What was the most memorable animal you’ve seen in real life? Have you ever been on a tour similar to the one that I described? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

PS: The stud in my featured image photo is my dad!!! Isn’t he handsome?! ❤

Jun11

Bark At The Park!!!

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Bark At The Park!!!

Heyyy everyone and happy Thursday! I had a really fabulous night last night with my sister Kristen and her satanic dog Winston at Bark At The Park. Akron, Ohio’s minor league baseball team the Rubber Ducks play at Canal Park in downtown Akron and two times during the summer, you’re allowed to bring your pup to the game with you. Last night was obviously one of those nights so we got ourselves ready, packed up the devil dog, and was on our merry way! Now you guys may be thinking “Winston looks so cute, there’s no way that he’s as bad as Sarah says he is”. BUT on contrare – he’s literally the worst dog ever! Yes, he’s cute but he’s the biggest yippy yappy brat in the entire world! He loves to bite, bark, growl, and just be flat out annoying. The only person who he likes in my family is Kristen so the rest of us our left to suffer at the paws of a twelve pound dog. SHAMEFUL! Anyways, we got to Canal Park with Winston in tow, purchased our tickets, and found our seats in the “dog friendly” section of the park. Throughout the walkway there were huge kiddie pools filled with water and loving owners walking their tiny, small, medium, and flat out huge four legged (and sometimes three legged!) friends. Winston had a blast getting his hump on and smelling a bunch of butts and Kristen and I had a great time too! We weren’t paying attention to the game at all, so I couldn’t tell you anything about that but we had an awesome time enjoying each others company, petting dogs, looking at dogs, being a dog, and taking a million batrillion selfies! Take a look:

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^^^ I LOVE US!!! Our evening at Bark At The Park was seriously so much fun – much more than I thought it would be because I wasn’t too keen on going originally but Kristen talked me into it and I’m so glad that she did! Once we got home from the game, the good times just kept on rolling because one of my favorite guys took me out for a night of drinking and good old fashion tom foolery. White girl wastedness definitely happened and lots of wonderful moments were shared between my handsome devil and I! So yeah, it was a pretty swell night – and after my shit show of a birthday I think I deserved it! All of these outings with my friends has helped take away the birthday blues and I’m feeling much better about the whole situation – especially when drinking heavily is involved! 😉 The big 2-1 is finally here… It started off rocky but it’s been vastly improving as the week goes on which you better believe I’m beyond happy for!!

I hope all of you are having a fabulous day so far! Does any of the sports arenas you live by have an event similar to Bark At The Park? And also, does anyone have any recommendations on how to ease the god awful itch of mosquito bites? I got bit up last night and I basically wanna tear my skin off right now – that’s how bad they itch! I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Jun6

Toledo Zoo Birthday Fun!

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Toledo Zoo Birthday Fun!

Heyy everyone and happy Saturday! And most importantly, happy one day until my 21st birthday!!! I had a beautiful day yesterday with my darling little BFF Lea at the Toledo Zoo for my birthday day trip celebration, so let me tell you all about it! WELL, we left Cuyahoga Falls yesterday around 9:30 and arrived at the zoo a little before twelve after an over two hour drive. We had to stop one time in Sandusky so I could go to the bathroom and we ran into quite a few characters before we even got to the zoo in the McDonald’s facilities…There was a lady with the longest pee Lea and I have ever heard that prevented both of us from going, which was AWFUL because I could barely walk from having to pee so bad. And then we can’t forget the girl who we ran into as we were washing our hands who was dressed up as a cat – face paint, tails, ears, the whole shebang. But hey, to each their own! After we relieved ourselves we made it to the zoo after another hour or so and unfortunately I had to pee AGAIN once we got there! This time it was even more urgent than the first which I didn’t even think was humanly possible! SO after another pee, we purchased our tickets from two evil, unhelpful, rude, rude, rude ladies and entered the Toledo Zoo! We explored the first half of the zoo which had elephants, penguins, primates, alligators, crocodiles, birds, reptiles, bears, tigers, and a gorgeous brand new aquarium. Unfortunately after we finished up at the elephant exhibit at the very end of the first half of the Toledo Zoo it began to rain really hard. But luckily, I packed my emergency beanie (the “E-Beanie”) to protect my red locks from the rain and Lea and I found shelter under the roof of a building. After surviving the downpour in Naked & Afraid: Toledo Zoo Edition, the sun came out and we were ready for some snacks and to get to the next half of the zoo that we still had to explore. We got some super delicious French fries that we finished before we even paid for them (whoops!) and of course some Dippin’ Dots because it’s our zoo tradition! YUM! We didn’t have much time to explore the second half of the zoo because we were unaware that they closed at four on weekdays rather than five – actually we didn’t find this out until about ten minutes before they closed because I consulted the map for some reason or another. As luck would have it though, the second half of the zoo was smaller than the first half so despite the speedy walk through of it we still got to see almost everything – rhinos, wolves, hippos, polar bears, sea lions, eagles, and a bunch of African Savannah animals including our all time favorite, GIRAFFES! They were so glorious!!!! We finished our zoo adventure by watching the majestic giraffes walk around their vast Savannah-esque habitat which was shared with other species of animals like ostriches, gazelles, antelopes, and more. It was a completely perfect day! Here’s a few of the pictures that I took during our Toledo Zoo visit:

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^^^ WTF is that fish? Hahaha! I’m so sad that I can’t upload videos on here because I have the cutest video of my favorite part of exploring the zoo…While watching the sweet gorillas in their exhibit with another family the gorgeous creatures were just kind of hanging out and lounging and eventually the family by us left. As soon as this family made their exit one of the gorillas decided to show off for me and Lea by rolling up and down the hill like a little kid. He went back and forth again and again until he tired himself out and it was seriously the most precious thing ever! He could probably sense that it was a special day for Lea and I and wanted to give us a little pre-birthday performance!

Yesterday was such a blast and I seriously had the best time with my darling Lea! We had so much fun during everything – the car rides, the zoo, the stormy weather (Lea and I are great at making not so good stuff enjoyable – one of the many reasons why I love our friendship!), and of course the Dippin’ Dots! What a fabulous birthday day trip extravaganza! Tonight I’ll be going out to dinner and the bars with my friends so you probably won’t hear from me tomorrow on my birthday due to a very probable hangover. SO that means I’ll be officially twenty-one the next time you talk to me on the usual Monday Update segment! AHHHH! I hope all of you are having a terrific day so far! What is everyone up to this weekend? Any fun plans? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

SARAH’S BIRTHDAY COUNTDOWN: ONE DAY LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

^^^ Lololol this classic one hit wonder was our driving theme song yesterday! #love

May19

Akron Zoo Adventure

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Akron Zoo Adventure

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday! Because I was away this weekend, I didn’t get to write about the beautiful afternoon my best friend Kate and I had last Thursday at the Akron Zoo! The weather in Akron was absolutely perfect for a zoo excursion, so best believe I broke out a sun dress and some fun wedges for the occasion! We had some lovely quality time roaming the park and the aquarium and making friends with the animals which Kate captured on her mom’s fancy camera. All photo credit on this post goes to Kate Powell, and shout out to her because she did an amazing job! Take a look:

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  • Featured Image photo: LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA!!!!!
  • Picture 1: Cute little birdy in the aviary! Honestly all of the birds in the Akron Zoo’s aviary set up were birds that I could see in my backyard, but that’s okay because they were still fun to look at! The aviary is laid out like a tree house that looks over the entire zoo, complete with a rickety wooden bridge. Love it!
  • Picture 2: The grizzly bear in this pic was gnawing at a fallen tree like nobody’s business. Hey, a bears gotta eat. The bear eating the log looked very similar to me when I’m eating Taco Bell, therefore the grizzly bear is one of my many spirit animals. (Lil Red Fun Fact: My number one spirit animal is a peacock!)
  • Picture 3: Ahhhh that goat was the cutest – and I must say my nails look fantastic in that picture! There’s an adorable barnyard section at the Akron Zoo complete with goats and sheep that you can feed and pet, and I especially bonded with the little sweetie in this picture! :’)
  • Picture 4: Spotted! A wild Sarah!
  • Picture 5: This tiger pic is mine and Kate’s favorite. Kate captioned this photo “Lunch a la toddler” because there was a little kid standing by us when Kate snapped this shot, and the tiger is definitely looking at something pretty longingly! And let’s talk about those eyes! So gorgeous!
  • Picture 6: I’m also very fond of this photo of the majestic looking lion. He had his tongue hanging out for most of our time looking at him, and it looked so ridiculously goofy and I loved every minute of it!
  • Picture 7: Lololol, Kate captioned this pic “The Introvert” and that pretty much sums up this big guy. Every time I see a tortoise I always have a fantasy of climbing up on top of its shell and riding around on it cowgirl style…A girl can dream, right?

Besides all of the gorgeous animals that you can see, the Akron Zoo also has lots of fun stuff to offer like their carousel and  a clear plastic slide that takes you through the watery otter exhibit. One thing that Kate and I particularly enjoyed was the touch tank in the aquarium. We got to feel up some stingrays, a crab that I forget the name of, and a chocolate chip starfish. The stingrays did not feel like what I was expecting them to feel like at all – they were really silky and velvety as opposed to the greasy and slimy that I was expecting. Despite all of the amazing exhibits and activities, The Akron Zoo is relatively small and Kate and I got through the entire zoo in under two hours. If you’re ever in the Akron area and are looking for a fun way to spend your afternoon, I can’t recommend the zoo enough!

So there you have it, my Akron Zoo Adventure. Is there a zoo near you in your neck of the woods? What is it like? What’s the best zoo that you’ve ever been to? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah