This past Christmas, the hubby and I took a road trip to Los Angeles with some friends of ours. We’d been hearing about these beagles who’d been flown over from Spain and rescued from an animal testing facility. 40 of them! There was a woman named Shannon Keith who started an organization called the Beagle Freedom Project and took on the responsibility of finding homes for all these angels. It turned out that a friend of ours who lived in LA had agreed to fostering a couple of these precious pups. We decided to make a special stop to meet them while we were in town.

When we first arrived to meet Frederick and Douglass, you could tell something was amiss. We sat and listened to the heart breaking stories of their former lives. Many of the dogs had gone directly from a commercial breeder to the lab. They had never felt a blade of grass under their feet or felt the warmth of the sun on their skin. They lived in cages with steel wire floors that penetrated their tender paws and they had learned to become fearful of people from a lifetime in confinement and being restrained. Some had been surgically de-barked by the breeder and all of them had horrifying ID numbers tattooed in their ears as if they were property instead of living, breathing, beings.

Sitting on the grass just a few feet away, looking into those deep brown eyes, I tried to imagine the agony these creatures had endured. I watched as they hesitantly circled us, hiding behind bushes and trees, poking their timid little noses out every so often to assess the situation. As my sadness and frustration passed, I began to feel a sense of relief and joy for them. Knowing that there were people out there who cared about these animals enough to devote their time, money, patience, and effort to rehabilitating them brought a sort of comfort to my heart.

Gradually, they seemed to inch their way toward us as the time passed. By the hours end, curiosity seemed to have gotten the best of Frederick and Douglass and we’d all become friends.

When we think of Valentines day, we usually relate it to romance, material goods, love letters, things of that sort. Rarely, do we find ourselves celebrating true, genuine, selfless love. Inspired by Frederick and Douglass’ story, we couldn’t help but feel insane amounts of love and gratitude for them and the people who had come to their rescue. This year, in their honor and in the spirt of love, we have decided to donate $5 for every online order purchased now through February 9th to the Beagle Freedom Project .

Instead of giving the normal overly processed candies, or flowers and diamonds laced with cruelty, we encourage you to send your sweetie a box of delicious, handmade cinnamon rolls packaged with the utmost TLC from our little bakery. Our first 50 orders will include a beautiful, customizable, letter pressed card made locally by the ever-so-talented illustrator, Rigel Stuhmiller. Her work has been featured in Sunset Magazine, BARK magazine, Wired.com, Salon.com, Daily Candy, The Today Show, Apartment Therapy, Town and Country, and mentioned on NPR. We’ve also ordered some pretty darn cute tissue paper to top it off!

You’re probably thinking this story can’t get any more loveable, right? Well, you’re wrong.

When we contacted Rigel about ordering these adorable cards, she told us that the beagle who was featured, was actually a lab rescue also! She and her sister Maxine, were adopted by a loving couple and now reside in Emeryville, CA. It’s been reported that their progress since their rescue has been phenomenal.

Oh, and as for Frederick and Douglass? It turned out that in the end, their foster situation happily became their permanent home.

XOXO Happy Valentines Day! XOXO

There were so many exciting things to be thankful for in November. Mainly, the “fame train” that ran through our store this month!

We were given the opportunity to present the movie premier of Bold Native when it came to town which was SUPER exciting. The movie captured Charlie Cranehill, an animal liberator wanted for domestic terrorism, who emerges from the underground to coordinate a nationwide action as his estranged CEO father tries to find him before the FBI does. Cool, right?

After the show, guest speaker John Robbins and Jake Conroy (one of the SHAC 7) dropped some crazy inspiration on us that left us all feeling enlightened and empowered. Finally, after months of emailing back and forth, we got to chat with director Denis Hennelly and producer Casey Suchan after the Q&A segment of the show. They’ve definitely made our list of top ten raddest people!  We ended the night with a round of hugs from friends we hadn’t seen in a while with hopes to catch up with them more at the Saturn Cafe Space Lounge later in the week. Turns out Joaquin Pastor, the main character in Bold Native, was playing a show with his band Masks. Amazing people, amazing music, amazing vegan peanut butter milkshake. That pretty much summed up the night.

Speaking of shows, we attended another event later in the month at the Regency Ballroom in SF that we thought was worth mentioning. One of our good friends who runs the sound board for Bad Religion was in town so we decided to trudge out in the rain to deliver some rolls and say hello. After briefly being hassled by security with our somewhat soggy box of cinnamon rolls in hand, we finally made it backstage in time to watch the end of the Bouncing Souls set and bump fists with Fat Mike and the Bad Religion guys before the main event. Needless to say, an incredible night for us, our friend, and our cinnamon rolls.

At the beginning of the month, a good friend of ours, Cello Dias, popped his head in to try out our rolls and drop off a demo cd for his new band Against All Will. If you live in LA, definitely check these guys out!

We were also blessed with a surprise visit from pro skater and artist extraordinaire, Ed Templeton and his wife who popped in to buy a few rolls! Staffer Justin, managed to snag a quick pic before they headed out.

By the end of the month we were beaming with excitement from everything that had happened. This was about the point where I logged into our Twitter account and saw a post that said…

“MV” meaning, Milo Ventimiglia. As in the star of the TV show ‘Heroes‘. You might also recognize him as Rocky’s son in Rocky 6, or the hot tattooed guy in Fergie’s ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry‘ video. You know exactly who I’m talking about ladies! Somewhere between being flattered and stoked, I noticed that he had almost 32,000 followers! Flattered just went out the window and turned into GRATEFUL. Thanks for the Cinnaholic mention Milo!

Ok, so all these crazy awesome things had been happening throughout the month. I was worried that I was about to have a stroke from all the excitement so we decided it was time to schedule a mellow night with our friends to celebrate and give thanks. We ended our perfect month with a perfect meal. A ridiculous all vegan Thanksgiving dinner with homemade Seitan and all the fixin’s!

Somehow we’ve managed to digest a weeks worth of Thanksgiving leftovers and now… we’re hungry for more action!

We’re gearing up to help you redeem your gift certificate purchases that you all generously purchased back in September when we needed a helping hand. We’ll be offering our tasty seasonal specials (Candy Cane topping, Peppermint Hot Chocolate anyone?) as well as organizing some fancy surprises and other exciting store announcements for the month of Decemer. Be sure to keep an eye out!

BRING IT December!

Shannon Michelle

Many of you have already heard about the new animal rights movie coming out called Bold Native. When the trailer for this masterpiece hit the web months ago, we jumped at the chance to get in touch with the producers. After a few emails back and forth and after a stop at our store, we were finally able to meet (and feed) the faces behind the movie. Our love for them, and their love for our rolls, have officially come together to proudly present the Bold Native SF screening!

Check out a preview of the Bold Native trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB0ITQfWjfk

John Robbins, best-selling author, activist and former heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire, will host the San Francisco premier of the independent feature film Bold Native, the first fiction film about the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a non-centralized group of animal liberators and economic saboteurs that the FBI calls their top domestic terrorist priority. The San Francisco screening concludes an independently booked summer tour by Bold Native which brought the film to capacity audiences in Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Washington DC, Des Moines, and New York City.

This special press event and screening will be  held on Thursday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. at the Red Vic Movie House, 1727 Haight Street, San Francisco. Doors will open to members of the press at 6pm and the film will begin at 7pm. John Robbins will be available for interview & photos at 6:15 p.m. and will introduce the film at 7:00 p.m. A second screening will begin at 9:30 p.m. Following each screening, animal liberation activist Jake Conroy, who served three years for nonviolent activism that targeted an animal research lab, will say a few words followed by a Q&A with Suchan, Hennelly, and stars Joaquin Pastor and Nik Tyler.

The film reflects a growing cultural debate about the use of animals for food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research. It introduces viewers to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) of 2006, a law which enables the prosecution of activists as terrorists if their actions result in economic damage to corporations in animal industries like factory farms, slaughterhouses, research labs or fur farms. In addition to narrative storytelling, the film incorporates undercover footage from labs, farms, and real-life animal liberations for stunning realism.

If all that awesomeness isn’t enough to convince you to get off your booty and come see it, how about this?

Anyone that stops by the Cinnaholic store this weekend has a chance to win 2 pairs of tickets to the SF screening! Just leave us your contact info and cross your fingers! SO. EXCITED. Are YOU?!