🎶Oh give me a home, Where the Plushalos roam🎶

I'm Toby, and I adopt lots of stuffed friends who get to live out their lives in comfort and grandeur. All photos on this blog are photos of friends I have adopted. I'm 29, use they/them pronouns, am white, and autistic. Stuffed animals are my special interest.

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Hello everyone!

Welcome to Stuffed Friends Sanctuary!

At SFS, we believe all stuffed animals deserve loving homes and deserve to have peaceful lives free from garbage cans, grubby handed children, and overeager Chihuahuas. We are a non-profit foundation whose core mission is to provide, or find, forever homes for wayward stuffed animals.

The sanctuary is primarily run by Toby, a 30yo autistic person, and is based in NY.

We rescue all types of animals here at the sanctuary, from very old to very new, from rabbits and dragons and everything in between!

We may have some friends available for adoption into forever homes, and if you are interested in providing these friends a forever home, please contact us via DM. Friends eligible for adoption will be marked as such, and will receive a separate post noting that they are adoptable. Any adoption fees will be noted in the post. Potential adoptees will be screened prior to adoptions being finalized, and all adoptions are on a first-fit, first-served policy.

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There are a few rules for following the sanctuary:

Please don't tap on the glass, it scares the tiny friends.

Please practice kindness. Some of our friends are very anxious and will not come out for photos if there are mean, hateful, bigoted, or not-work-friendly people here. We do not like to stop people from visiting, but we may have to prohibit entry to certain types of blogs, namely those that may be distressing, disturbing, or triggering to our more sensitive visitors.

We do not allow sexualized comments of any kind. Security will kindly escort you to the exit should you exhibit these behaviors while in the sanctuary. Please be mindful that there are younger folks who like to visit the sanctuary, and we would like to "keep it clean".

We welcome and recognize all genders, sexualities, identities, and orientations! OSOR (objectum), systems (of all varieties), and non-sexual age regressors included; we feel that sometimes these folks get left out of certain spaces, and we would like to reiterate that you are absolutely welcome into the sanctuary!

Visitation hours are from 10am-8:30pm Eastern Standard Time, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Please no food, beverages, flash photography, or selfie sticks in the sanctuary. We have restrooms, drinking fountains, and service animal relief areas marked on our sanctuary maps. A complimentary map copy is available at Guest Services. Smoking is strictly prohibited. Translator and interpreter services are available upon request.

Please make sure not to feed the friends, and to be aware of all warning signs. Some of our friends love to taste things, so be aware of any dangling straps, shiny body jewelery, and scarves. Our visually impaired friends might mistake your shawl for a tasty snack!

Please stay on the marked paths! Erosion is a serious problem, and we want to keep our ecosystem in tip-top shape for future generations.

Pictures of our friends generally post between 10am and 8pm Eastern Standard Time. We try for at least one post a day!

If there are any questions, please contact Toby, the sanctuary owner. They will be glad to assist you with anything you may need, or any clarification!

Thank you for visiting, and we hope you enjoy our friends!

--Alice B., David L., and Markus N., Stuffed Friends Social Media/Adoption Coordinators

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Ach, sorry everyone! I've been so busy with work, illness, and doctor's appointments, that I've kinda left this hanging.

Anyway, meet Trenton, or Trent for short. He's a Jersey Devil. Trenton is the capital of New Jersey. Jersey Devil...New Jersey...it all makes sense!

Yes, he's sitting on my lap in front of the studio stuff because I was too lazy and tired to take a nice picture.

(Trenton is a mini Squishable Jersey Devil adopted from Squishable)

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How about a more human-looking friend? The Sanctuary doesn't just hold animals and mystical creatures; Rusty here lives amongst our friends! He used to have a flannel shirt but it has since been lost to time.

Toby is going to be posting a lot of their childhood friends this week! These friends don't all have names nor do we remember the exact circumstances behind their acquisition. But these are the friends Toby saved from their parent's house, the friends that made it through all the moves and mold.

(Rugged Rusty is a TY Teenie Beanie Boppers)

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Our cats vs pickles friends!

There's over 100 (with a few still in transit including our friend Gumbo).

Toby would really like to welcome ALL the Cats vs Pickles to the Sanctuary, but there's so many friends and so little space. Beans, Chonks, Huggers...so many! We try not to pick favorites here at the Sanctuary, but we have one. Or three. Or 107.

Their personalities are as varied as their skins. While listing all their names would make this post very long, please feel free to ask anyway if you see a cute friend!

(Cats vs Pickles are made by Cepia toys. They came from various locations)

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Guess who got a HUGE box of mochi for their birthday?

Toby did!

Cinder, of course, is very excited by the thought of so many flavors of mochi. It's a very, very rare treat at the Sanctuary! Many of the residents, especially the dragons, love mochi. We opened the hami melon ones to share!

Cinder is one of the Sanctuary's bigger residents; while she's not as big as Rufus or Sir Burress, she can definitely fill out a space. While she has "droopy eyelid syndrome" that makes her look sad sometimes, she's very sweet and loves to chase the littler friends around for exercise. We call her an "extroverted introvert"; she likes her alone time, for sure, but she isn't shy, nor is she boisterous. She's gonna go outside and enjoy the nice weather and play some badminton!

(Cinder is a TY Beanie Boos Cinder Dragon adopted from a local small business)

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Good evening to the Sanctuary's newest resident, Maxine!

Maxine is an axolotl (which, we recently learned, is pronounced ah-SHOW-lowtch and not ax-oh-lot-l...the more you know!)

That's a bladeless fan around her neck--she likes to keep cool. She's not much of a talker; she uses sign language and AAC when she has something to say, but she mostly likes to sit and watch. She loves watching YouTube videos and eating mochi (not making it though...too sticky!) At 4lbs (1.8kg) she is one of our heaviest residents, only beaten by Poesidon, Lap Cat, Echo, and Alphonso.

She expressed a great interest in going outside to start a garden, so tomorrow she'll be working with Tonka and Digger to till a patch to grow some vegetables.

(Maxine is an Axol and Friends axolotl adopted from Sensory Toolhouse)

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"I wanna go outside, I wanna go outsideeeeeeee!"

The threat of rain and the humidity has forced our friends to stay inside today, even though the sun keeps peeking out from behind the clouds. Lizzie, however, was super determined to get outside. He was ready to bust down that window screen and make his way to freedom. He's an adventurous one, he is. He is also startlingly fast. One minute you're talking to him, you turn your back and POOF, he's gone!

He loves a good back rub and really enjoys his spaghetti. Summer is also his favorite season; despite the temperatures creeping up into the 80's (30°C-ish), it is most certainly not summer yet!

He's super into entomology. He can identify many of the bugs that are in and around our area, and, despite being a lizard, resists the urge to eat them. The only bugs he likes are gummy worms. He loves the beach too, but we don't really have any beaches readily available. The lake will have to suffice!

(Lizzie is a TY Beanie Buddy lizard received as a gift)

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Library day here at the Sanctuary! Jake Vox and Mooers are on filing duty today. We don't have a particular organizing system here other than 'put it where there's space'. Darla Dragon will help them reach the top shelves later on. But they best not disturb the dragons guarding the books!

Maybe one day we will organize the books meaningfully instead of haphazardly. Hmmmm...by color or by size? By author's last name or by subject? Read or unread? Who's to say.

Jake isn't much of a reader--he prefers action, like mowing the lawn or weeding. He does like pushing the book cart a lot though.

(Jake Vox is a Mattel Jurassic World Nasutoceratops adopted from Walmart. Mooers is a Warmies brown cow adopted from eBay)

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Ah, spring! The season where everybody comes out of their winter shell and blossoms into a new being! Well, at least that's what happened to Mingming here.

It was such a gorgeous spring day! Our cow friends were outside enjoying the grass, our cat friends were napping in the sun, and our bird friends were singing the song of their people. Everytime we think we have a chance to show off some of the friends here, it's been raining! So we're happy to have seen the sun.

In other Sanctuary news, we might be moving to a bigger Sanctuary soon! Plans are in the works for Ziz and Toby to buy the house they live in, so our friends will have more room to spread out in!

Anyway, Ming is going to go scream at the top of his lungs now!

(Mingming is a Thrasher No. 1 Cicada plus adopted from DFTBA)

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hello! i absolutely love your blog, and the concept behind it! (and i give you a big thanks for [indirectly] helping me discover what posic+ is, because that really explained a lot of stuff!) anyway, with all of that aside, would you mind me making a blog sort of inspired off of this one, with my own plushies, about their lives? (hopefully that sentence actually made sense, i'm recovering from being sick right now, and i'm still a little bit incoherent)

thanks,

sylv

Hi Sylv,

I'm glad the Sanctuary has helped you discover something new! We always love hearing about people who can relate and have shared experiences!

In terms of your question about creating a blog, we are all in agreement that you should absolutely go for it! Tumblr doesn't have nearly enough content relating to our stuffed friends, and we think everyone should spread the love! There's no need to worry about "stepping on anybody's toes" so to speak; we encourage everyone to cultivate the experience that suits them best. Whatever it is that makes you happy (so long as it isn't hurting anybody or yourself), we 100% support you going for it!

We're a big family and a big community; there's no competition or "taking away" from others. The more the merrier, as they say!

Anyway, we've blathered on enough. Thanks for taking the time to visit us, and we hope your stay is enjoyable!

--Markus

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Blizzard strummin' out the tunes! With Ziz's help. His arms don't really reach the strings, so best he can do is an open 'E'.

Blizzard came to us in very interesting circumstances. Ziz and Toby saw him at a store in a pile of stuffed animals, and thinking he was actually included in the display, decided to adopt him.

Only then did Toby realize that, in fact, no, this animal was not from this store. They went to take him to a 'lost and found' and there wasn't one, so the person said to take him home. They felt bad doing so, but decided to take him home. They checked back in a few times with the shop to see if anyone ever came looking for him, but nobody did.

Blizzard has an eye (er...ear) for music! He has perfect pitch, and loves to sing. He's particularly fond of showtunes, but he will sing anything stuck in his head. Recently it's been the soundtrack to the 1998 film version of Cats. Though he does sing about basically anything and everything.

(Blizzard is a TY Beanie Buddies white tiger)

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Time for a slumber party! To make Tails feel comfortable his first night at the Sanctuary, Ribberto showed him his favorite movie, "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams".

Poor Tails is drowning in that jumper! It's definitely too big for him. Ribberto was finally excited to get some pajamas himself! He's been waiting ages for his matching jumper. His tiger shirt was a little stretched out in the head hole. He does have a massive noggin...

Toby's been big into Sonic since the early 2000's, and was really excited to bring Tails to the Sanctuary. Ribberto's taken a liking to the kid; Tails is 8, and Ribberto is twenty-something, so they've got a mentor-mentee role going on. Ribberto was very excited to show Tails all the fun places where the snacks are hidden...guess they aren't hidden anymore...

(Ribberto is a Build a Bear Spring Green Frog. Tails is a Build a Bear Tails. Both were adopted from Build a Bear)

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Brothers Punchers (on the left) and Pinchers (on the right)! We had to take this photo immediately (no filter, as the youth say), and you'll know why shortly.

For those who follow Toby's main blog, you may have seen the tale of Punchers. For those who don't, we will tell you the story. We won't include the pictures because they may be upsetting for our objectum friends or for those with enormous object empathy (Toby cried when they saw Punchers in his original photo, they were in that bad of shape), but Toby has the full photo journey on their main blog.

Punchers was found by Ziz; he was cleaning out a junk car, and found Punchers in the trunk. Poor Punchers was dirty, filthy with oil and old water, soggy, matted, and just an absolute mess.

Toby came home from work, tears in their eyes, and said, "I can fix that".

They set about getting Punchers's old stuffing out, even though they have never used a seam ripper before (can you believe that?!) and was afraid they would make his beans fall out. But they didn't.

Beans safely set aside, Toby gave Punchers 4 baths. First, a dry baking soda bath to absorb moisture, since they couldn't get every last bit of stuffing. Then a gentle bath with gentle soap and water, followed by a water/baking soda bath, and then 2 gentle water rinses. Ziz asked Toby why they didn't put Punchers in the washing machine, and Toby admonished him! Never put your friends in the washing machine!

Anyway, finally dry, Toby diligently stuffed him back up with quilt bunting, so he was nice and dense. They sewed him up tight, and made sure to give him a big hug for being so brave during his surgery. You can tell Toby isn't a very good seamster, but Punchers looks fantastic! Well loved, as they put it.

Now he gets to live the rest of his days with his new brother Pinchers, enjoying everything the Sanctuary has to offer. He just asks that we keep him away from dark places and cars.

(Punchers and Pinchers are both TY Beanie Buddy lobsters. Punchers was found in a car, Pinchers was adopted from Etsy)

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A tea party for the Tea Dragons!

Jasmine wanted a delicate tea, like a white tea or a "blooming" tea. Chamomile wanted a floral tea like rosehips or, naturally, chamomile. Alpine Chamomile wanted something fruity like pomegranate or blueberry, and Rooibos wanted a robust black tea or Earl Grey.

Ultimately, they settled on iced tea with lemon, a fan favorite in the Sanctuary (mostly because that's Toby's go-to drink)! Delicious!

(Chamomile, Alpine Chamomile, Rooibos, and Jasmine are Tea Dragon Society tea dragons adopted from Kickstarter)

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Mothra. Need we say more?

She wanted to be photographed in front of the poster. Unfortunately, that means we really only got her face and not her beautiful wings. Her face is beautiful too!

She wanted Godzilla and Gidorah to be in the picture too, but they were too busy trying to shove each other off the shelf. Maybe next time!

Because Mothra came direct from Japan, even though she was sentient, we couldn't understand a single thing she was saying, and our other friends couldn't either! She's picked up a lot of our native tongue since then but there's still some words she gets confused, like "speaker" and "sneaker". Also, did you know the past tense of the word 'sneak' isn't 'snuck'? It's sneaked! The more you know!

(Mothra is a TY Classic Mothra Beanie Baby received as a gift. Ziz says he adopted her from eBay).

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Sage found a nice pillow by the window to curl up and watch the birds outside.

It's been awfully cloudy and rainy at the Sanctuary over the past couple weeks. Seems like spring isn't quite ready to fully bloom yet.

When she's not harassing her sister Snow and her brothers Dexter and Onyx, Sage can be found reading a good book or looking at nature. She's a sweet and sensitive soul who wants nothing more than to curl up with a glass of iced tea and a good romance novel outside when it's nice and warm.

They say we're going to be in the 70's (about 20°C) next week, so maybe the sun will make an appearance. Goodness knows we could all use some fresh air and natural light.

(Sage is a Jellycat medium sage dragon adopted from a local small business)

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Hey!! Sorry if this is a super weird question, but I am a plush-maker trying really really hard to save some money to buy a house. Do you ever boost plushmakers on your blog? I make them out of sensory-friendly super soft fabric and even weight them for comfort. Sorry again if this is an uncomfy question!!!!

Hi there, thank you for visiting the Sanctuary!

We don't directly boost posts on here, but I did head over to your blog and check out the store linked in your bio, and I must say, your plushies are very impressive!

We don't have a super large visitor count at the Sanctuary (a lot less than people think actually!), but we do know some other blogs following us who may boost plush makers who may have a more robust following!

To our fellow Sanctuary visitors, if you directly boost posts for plush makers, please boost this visitor's store if you feel inclined so it can reach a larger audience!

--Toby