Furball Fitness Celebrates 10 Years of Compassionate Care for Pets in Central Ohio and Beyond
"These 10 years represent our growth and the relationships we've built, the trust we've earned, and the lives we've touched, both human and animal," says Shannon Anello, founder of Furball Fitness. "It's about the wagging tails that greet us every morning and the joy we get from simply being there when pets need a little extra love. This journey has shaped me as much as I've shaped it."
Anello, a longtime Columbus resident with a 15-year background in graphic design and marketing, founded Furball Fitness in 2015 in a leap of faith. Tired of the instability of corporate life and drawn to her love of animals, she turned her freelancing downtime into a passion project of dog walking in her neighborhood. With a handmade website, Anello combined her talents in branding and design and her devotion to pets to set the foundation for the business.
Within six months, the demand for Anello's services was so strong that she hired her first employee. By 2019, Furball Fitness had grown into a multi-service operation with a newly purchased facility to house a full-service pet resort. Today, it has a team of over 30 devoted animal lovers.
Furball Fitness offers in-home pet sitting, training, grooming, and daycare, as well as specialized services such as pet taxis, wedding pet care, and private birthday pawties . The facility is affectionately known among clients as a "heaven for animals," offering a 360-degree care experience that caters to every need a pet might have, whether emotional, physical, or social.
Furball Fitness especially stands out for its heart: Anello herself. Unable to have children, she pours her maternal love into the animals she cares for. These pets are, in every way, her family. Anello's fur family has included Saint Bernards, German Shepherd mixes, and bunnies. Each of them plays a part in her story, and their presence is embedded in the nurturing atmosphere of the pet resort.
"We're not just sitters, walkers, or daycare staff. We're stand-in pet parents when you need us most. Our standard of care is simple. Treat every pet like family," Anello says.
This approach has earned the trust of the local community. One pet parent shared, "My Mason absolutely loves the Furball Fitness team! The team is very welcoming and caring. I feel safe leaving my pet with them... I'd never take Mason anywhere else."
Now, following its 10th year of building trust through transparency, communication, and consistency, Furball Fitness is preparing for franchising, its next exciting chapter. Anello is working to bring the company's signature care model to more communities across the United States. With her marketing background and authentic brand identity already in place, the transition is poised for success.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
A Disabled Woman Wanted to Starve Herself to Death. The State Wouldn't Let Her. A New Doc Looks at Her Case (Exclusive)
NEED TO KNOW Director Reid Davenport's new documentary Life After examines the right-to-die question through the experiences of disabled people Reid, who has cerebral palsy, uses the case of Elizabeth Bouvia, a young woman with cerebral palsy, as the centerpiece of the film Bouvia was denied the right to starve herself in 1983Allowing a person with a dire health diagnosis or an unbearable level of pain to die might seem like an act of mercy to some people. But what would happen if the government were to decide that anyone with a disability deserves the right to die? Filmmaker Reid Davenport confronts this question in his new documentary Life After, primarily through the story of Elizabeth Bouvia, a California woman with cerebral palsy who, at the age of 26, sought the legal right to starve herself to death. This was in 1983, and some TV news broadcasts questioned why someone who was young and beautiful would want to end her life. She said she wanted to die because she hadn't been given the right to live in a society with a healthcare structure that valued the bottom line over her well-being. Davenport, who also has cerebral palsy, and his producing partner at Multitude Films, Colleen Cassingham, kept hearing similar reasoning while making Life After, which is now playing in select theaters. Bouvia articulated her argument well when her case moved to court — she was in pain, tired and bogged down by bureaucracy — but the state eventually sided with the hospital, which said it could not betray its oath to first do no harm. So what happened to this so-called pioneer in the right-to-die movement after the case ended? That is the question Davenport set out to answer when he started working on Life After. Framed by Bouvia's story, the documentary explores expanded Canadian policies that allow nearly anyone with a disability to apply to die, why some disabled people have made the tough choice to die and how advocates for MAiD (medical aid in dying) defend the expansion of the policies from people with a terminal diagnosis to anyone with a disability. The film amplifies varied voices and points of view, like Melissa Hickson, who says her husband Michael Hickson was denied lifesaving care because doctors decided his quality of life was too low, and Catherine Frazee, a professor who posits that you cannot address human suffering by killing people. One participant, Michal Kaliszan, details how he considered assisted dying after his mother, who was his primary caretaker, died, and he could no longer afford the care he needed. While working on the documentary, Cassingham had to navigate a shift in taking right-to-die activism at face value as progressivism to fully understanding the implications of applying it to all disabled people. "I thought assisted dying was really about personal choice and bodily autonomy, values that I'm deeply committed to," she tells PEOPLE. "And in learning from Reid and in working on this film, I realized there's so much more to the picture of how it actually works in society, and it's deeply linked with the ways that we do and don't value certain lives, and a deep-seated ableism that underpins so much of society." Over the course of Life After, as Davenport searches for Bouvia's family and seeks to find out if she is still living, two themes emerge: that the focus on right-to-die policies ignores that so many disabled people are not given the right to live and that any one person deciding what a good quality of life is for someone else can be tricky. "The themes at the heart of this film are not niche; they're not particular to the disability community. Things like healthcare, isolation and the way that we value other human lives are universal," Cassingham says. "Everyone has a stake in the fight for a society that is invested in care and in upholding each other's dignity in the systems that we build and live within." Eventually, Davenport locates Bouvia's sisters, Teresa and Rebecca, and convinces them to appear on camera to talk about their sibling, who died in 2014. Encouraging the pair to open up about Bouvia was not easy, but Davenport's authenticity and transparency helped win them over. "Their main concern was that Elizabeth's reputation and decisions were going to be questioned again, and we ensured that was not our intention," Davenport says. "Basically, trying to, with the audience, meet them where they were at, and not force them." As Teresa and Rebecca share stories of Bouvia's life after the 1980s while the film visits people who have used or are considering using MAiD, it becomes clear that assisted dying may have its place in the medical system. However, as Davenport sees it, discussions about it should be handled carefully when the focus is on people with disabilities. "We should be asking, 'How can we enable disabled people to live?' And support them, and allow them opportunities," he says. "There's this sinister perspective that we are a burden, that we suck up money. So there's this underlying incentive for the health industry to allow people to choose assisted suicide." He continues, "What I would encourage people to do is to look at how we can better the lives of people with disabilities rather than leave them to die." Near the end of the film, Davenport fills out the application for Canada's MAiD program to see how easy or hard it would be for him to qualify. What starts as a funny exercise becomes scary when he passes with flying colors. He reflects on this and on all the people he has met who have gone down the same path and says he can't imagine how different he would feel about his life without the support, care and passion he has. In one particularly poignant moment, Cassingham agrees that her quality of life would also be greatly reduced without these things, but because she doesn't have a disability, she wouldn't be given the option to die because of it. "Quality of life doesn't have much to do with the abilities of our bodies. When someone becomes disabled or is aging, there's a real grappling with what that means, because society has told us that what makes us productive and able to enjoy life revolves around our bodies and our ability to do certain things," she says. "But for me, I've experienced a real reframing of disability as a natural part of the fabric of human experience." "I'm learning that quality of life resides somewhere else, and it involves the people around you, it involves being loved, and giving love and care," Cassingham adds. "And those are things we all have access to if we live in a society where care is fostered and relationships and interdependency is valued and fostered." While Bouvia's life after her landmark court case quickly fell out of the news cycle, Davenport's film reappraises the right-to-die question — through the sweet recollections of Bouvia's sisters, home video footage and the context of many others who are choosing to die or questioning why it is even an option. Life After is now playing in select theaters Read the original article on People
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
India's HDFC Bank reports 12.2% profit growth in Q1 due to higher interest income
(Reuters) -HDFC Bank, India's largest private bank by market capitalisation, reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Saturday due to a surge in interest income from loans and treasury gains, even as provisions for bad loans spiked. The bank's standalone net profit rose 12.2% to 181.55 billion rupees ($2.11 billion) in the April-to-June quarter, above the average analyst forecast of 172.84 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG. The bank's net interest income - the difference between interest earned on loans and paid on deposits - rose 5.4% to 314.38 billion rupees. Other income, typically backed by treasury gains and fees on services, more than doubled to 217.29 billion rupees in the quarter. HDFC Bank's provisions for bad loans, however, jumped five-fold to 144 billion rupees. The bank, in its exchange filing, said most of these provisions were not linked to any actual bad loans but instead acted as a "countercyclical buffer for making the balance sheet more resilient." Indian lenders have been grappling with an increase in bad loans in segments such as microfinance and unsecured portfolio, which have forced them to set aside more funds for potential defaults and to strengthen their balance sheets. On Thursday, HDFC Bank peer Axis Bank saw its new bad loans double due to a market benchmarking exercise. While overall bank credit growth has slowed in India, HDFC Bank posted growth of 6.7% for its overall loan book, driven by a 17.1% rise in loans to small and medium businesses. The private lender also approved its first ever bonus share issue on Saturday, meaning each of its shareholders will be eligible to receive an extra bonus share for every share held. The date of issuance is still to be determined, the bank said. In a bonus issue, a company distributes additional stock to shareholders as a proportion of their holdings at no cost. It is typically a sign of confidence in financial performance and growth trajectory. The board has also approved a special dividend of 5 rupees per share. ($1 = 86.1450 Indian rupees)
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia's (NVDA) China Opportunity Reopens — Price Target Raised to $192 by Mizuho
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the On July 15, Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh raised the price target on the stock to $192.00 (from $185.00) while maintaining an 'Outperform' rating. The rating affirmation follows Trump's announcement that Nvidia may begin AI GPU shipments to China. The firm highlighted the US administration's announcement that Nvidia and other AI accelerator providers may resume shipments of AI GPUs, as part of ongoing trade negotiations. The firm highlighted that this is a major win for the company. Previously, Nvidia had anticipated an $8 billion revenue impact in the July quarter due to shipment restrictions. Creativa Images/ There is also an upcoming Blackwell project aimed at meeting US requirements for shipments to China in the later part of the year, which the company stands to benefit from. Owing to these policy changes, Chinese customers are already applying for licenses to receive the H20 chips, Mizuho noted. ByteDance and Tencent are two to name. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) specializes in AI-driven solutions, providing high-performance GPUs and platforms that power data centers, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and cloud services. While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
