I’m Vincent D. Cat and here to make you happy! You are HEROES! You work hard every day and you deserve to smile every day! Those of you working to save us animals hear so very many very sad things. And there’s lots of very glad things too and that’s what we talk about here! All pawsitive all the time! I want my friends to be happy and smile and know there’s a lot of good - including YOU - in this world!! Be kind and pass it on! Please send me your Good New and Fun Stuff to share, personal or global. Let’s keep it fun and interactive!! After all, if we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane! Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org
Round the Refuge
I love you, my awesome friends, you all are so special. Thank you Melissa, Deb from Indiana, who worked with India and Me throughout the night reminding our friends to vote. The shelter challenge is a planet wide contest, and we have friends in every time zone across the planet, so reminding them to vote as they woke up and came on line can win the final few needed votes.
You all did a fabulous job turning your clicks into dollars!!! YOU won week 9 with the most votes and that brought in a $1,000 check today!!! Yeahhhh. That will feed 4,000 meals at Rikki’s Refuge. What a huge amount of food. With 1,259 of us to feed every day ..... we need all the help we can get.
Now we sit with paws crossed till Wednesday morning when they announce who the state winner is. We started the day three hairs ahead - let’s hope we were able to maintain it!!!!
Helping to feed everybody is why I need YOUR help tomorrow, Tuesday, in the mid afternoon. We’re expecting a donation from Purina of 10 pallets of nums. Paws crossed it’s good nums. Some for the doggies and lots and lots for the kitties. Not cuz they love ME more but cuz there are more of us kitties!!! Can you come out and help us unload?? We form a fire brigade and pass the food off the truck into our storage trailer. Over and over and over !!! Please come help us.
So much good help and so many good volunteers yesterday. I wanted to share the pictures with you this morning but mom has to take the puter cuz she’s got to get Duke’s photos ready. He got chosen, as the only doggy, to run in Zoe’s line of handicapped or service animals in the Bissell contest. Somebody else had been scheduled to run this week and she got really sick from her handicap problem so she had to step down. Lots of nominations were looked at and the vote fell in favor of Duke. So now mommey has to get his pictures ready. He and me did a photo shoot this weekend and I think if she who opens cans picked a picture of Duke with me standing in front of him - it’d be the winner!!!!
SO cuz she who opens cans is gonna be she who fixes up pictures - I’m not gonna get time to download my weekend pictures till later. So instead of writing Goon Midnight Snack time - I’m gonna write now and show you the pictures tomorrow. It that ok?
Dave and his brother and Mary and Andy worked on the roof at Rabbit Rotunda II and really got an awfully lot done for four people. Dave said Gee if only 8 or 10 had been here think of what we could have done. So please think about helping next SATURDAY.
Katarina was real busy all weekend. We were really short staffed. Only 3 people. Yikes. It takes five to keep up well. Four for a day or two and you can catch up. But we’ve been four for almost a month now and then Sean had a few vacation days off for a family event and that made three. Yikes!!! Thankfully a new guy starts today. He was gonna be part time fill in, but he gets promoted to full time on his first day!!! Paws crossed that he keeps loving us no that he has to clean up our poo. Two interviews for people who sound good on Wednesday to be back up on call people to help out. Paws crossed they work out.
So Katarina was helping out here and there. Scooping a cat box and getting a volunteer started. Washing dishes and giving a tour. She had enough tour people to make it two tours yesterday. We hope many of them will come back as regular volunteers.
Gosh it’d be wonderful to have enough money to have like 10 or 12 people working every day!!! But we don’t!! So we really need YOU to volunteer to help scrub floors and clean litter boxes and pooper scoop. And if you really can’t stand the poo, well there are dishes to wash and grass to mow (there will be real soon) and things to build and fix. So what ever you can do, we need you!!!!
This is how I feel when I get a can of Fancy Feast
This Saturday, March 26th, we want YOU to come and buy OUR collectibles and other wonderful stuff! Rikki’s Refuge Animal Sanctuary has a booth at a huge, INDOOR craft/yard sale event at the Locust Grove Middle School (31208 Constitution Highway, Locust Grove, VA 22508) from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm. About 10 miles from Rikki’s.
All sales from our booth go directly to help feed, medicate and shelter the 1200 plus creatures at Rikki’s. You can purchase something great (for yourself or a gift for a friend) AND help keep Vincent D. Cat in Fancy Feast and the dogs in kibble – how great is that? Cash, please.
We have a large cardinal collection, a small bulldog collection, a huge collection of hand carved stone animal totems (frogs, buffalo, coyote, bears, seal, large white buffalo and so many more!), some housewares, catnip sacks, handmade fleece rope dog toys, jewelry, candles, statues, chimes and trinkets galore.
We also have a nice collection of size 12 and size 14 clothes (only $3.00 per item and many still have tags) and a few stuffed toys for the kids. We also have some Christmas ornaments, a pair of black end tables and a bit of this and a bit of that. Whew!
Everything is clean and in great shape – no junk here!
We are supposed to be at spot #10, but if we have been moved, just ask the Lionesses who are hosting the event where they have moved us – or look for our purple Rikki’s Refuge banner. ---Kathy Doucette
We didn’t get very good pictures of the Super Full Moon Saturday night but some folks did!!!
This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point.
And, you also see the sun below the moon.
And, you also see the sun below the moon.
That is probably the most spectacular one I’ve seen. But here are lots of other beautiful ones too.
Is Lake Superior, Minnesota covered in ice or snow?? But gosh is that spectacular. just imagine the set up and the waiting and the timing and all the work that went into getting these wonderful pictures.
And don’t you forget WE are just as beautiful!!!!!
It was really nice to see Kerri from Magpi Studios last weekend too. It was a surprise visit and here’s what she shot!!
Bissell MVP Contest
Vote daily Wednesday March 16 thru Tuesday March 22nd for Sugar
quick, simple, free
Your daily vote could win up to $10,000 for Purr Angels
Click here to Vote for Sugar
Sugar is a therapy cat for my 12 y/o Asperger's Syndrome son. He teaches my boy it's ok to have emotions and taught him about body language. He is 4.5 yrs. old and neutered. His organization is PURR ANGELS.
Vinspirational Moments
Life is a rope that swings us through hope,
always believe today is much better than yesterday and
tomorrow will be better than today!
Life gives answers in three ways,
it says YES and gives whatever you want,
it says NO and gives you something better,
it says WAIT and gives us the best.
I’m taking this to mean yesterday all my friends were voting for our success!!! Tomorrow will bring wonderful donations of tons and tons of delicious nutritious nums. And Wednesday will bring the announcement that Vincent is the Virginia State Varmint !!! But if not ..... what will be waiting for us !!!!
The Cats of Cod
Artwork by Wayne H. Morris of New York
photography and art
visit to see more of his spectacular work
Wayne loves to study an animal and capture their essence which he then turns into a whimsical work of art depicting them at work or play. Your pet’s whimsical custom portrait available for only $300 (donated to Rikki’s Refuge). Contact me and I’ll put you in touch Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org Prints available, 8” x 10”, on heavy stock, suitable for framing, $25 each, resolution may vary so you may want to ask first. Specify which print you want and shipping address. http://bit.ly/WayneMorrisPrint
Marco’s favorite winter sport is sledding
On this Day
We have a lot to do today!!! March 21, is Memory Day - so we have to remember all the good things in life and all the good things we’re so thankful for. Rikki’s Refuge is the first good thing that comes to my mind. Without them I’d be ... well ... this is Good News so let’s not think about that!! The next if Fancy Feast, num num. And of course all my wonderful friends!! My HEROES who make life here possible. I love you all so much. You all give me so much to be happy for every day!!!
March 21, is also National Common Courtesy Day. Sometimes it seems like that’s sorely missing doesn’t it? I can be standing in line at the grocery store, clutching my cans of Fancy Feast, struggling to reach up and get it on the check out counter and the guy behind me is more likely to shove me out of the way and say, “hey you little runt, who let you in here anyway, I’m an important hooman, I have opposable thumbs and I need my beer now, so get out of my way” than he is to say, “can I help you set that up there?”
You know it takes so little to be a hero instead of an ... uppps mom’s coming, if I say words like that she washes my mouth out with soap. But you know what I mean, don’t you? Just a little bit of kindness goes so far.
And March 21, is National Dance Day - oh that should be Wednesday!! I hope I get to do the happy dance and I hope I get voted the Virginia State Varmint !!!! Paws crossed we win the Shelter Challenge. YOU all worked so hard to be HEROES, you deserve to win!!!
The 24th Species
Rikki’s Refuge’s Human Habitat
Counseling services
Because I Love YOU
and I need YOU
and I Thank YOU
so Very Much
Love,
Vincent
PS You tell me what you want! Email me at Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org with instructions to change your subscription: additions, deletions or modifications! Subscriptions: Vincent’s VIPs - up to the second alerts about issues at Rikki’s Refuge for those who care and want to be intimately involved. Scheduled as needed. Good Morning Good News - a little something to get you going in the mornings, for those of you who want to keep smiling with us! Scheduled daily. Hairballs - so you know what’s coming up at Rikki’s! Scheduled weekly.
Rikki's Refuge, supported solely by private donations, houses over 1200 animals of 22 species. On line at http://bit.ly/Give-a-gift-to-Rikkis Checks, money orders, cash, items at Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960
Rikki's Refuge is owned and operated by Life Unlimited of Virginia, Inc., an IRS 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Virginia Corporation, tax-id 54-1911042. Combined Federal Campaigns #77674, Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign #3163, Pet smart Charities #1377. A financial statement is available upon written request from the State Office of Consumer Affairs.
Learn more www.RikkisRefuge.org and help spread the good word, tell everyone you know about Rikki’s Refuge
