Good Morning Good News !!!! December 13, 2012

Dear Friends, Supporters, Donors, Volunteers, Staff ... everyone who's touched Rikki's Refuge ....

I want to thank you for what a wonderful year 2012 has been for Rikki’s Refuge.  So many more aminals rescued; some coming here, others, without help, were able to stay in their homes, or go to a new home directly.  We taught lots of kids, teens and adults about the wonder of life and to cherish all, especially the aminals, around them ... and many o them will go on to help teach that lesson and help make the world a better and better place.  

I want to thank you for making all this possible.  Rikki’s Refuge was nothing but a corn field.  And trash.  Lots of trash, piled up here and there ...

(one of the first work parties at Rikki’s Refuge in 1998)

... and run down buildings ...  and stray animals that must of been waiting for nice hoomans to come by for years ....

... mom looked across that corn field and she didn’t see the trash .... and the falling down buildings .... and the sad animals

.... she saw beautiful pastures .... animal neighborhoods built just for them ... happy rehabilitated no longer hungry animals .....  

... and when people said, “Oh the backbreaking work!”, “You’ll never have enough money!, “This can’t be done!”, “It’ll take years!” .... she didn’t hear them

.... instead she heard her mom saying ...  “Anything is possible if you try, try, try and try again!”  “You can do anything you want to, if only you want to bad enough.”  

.... and she heard god saying .... “This is your job” .... “you are here to help my animals” .... “teach others that it’s possible to change the world”  ... “take one more step today” ... “every single step in the right direction is one step ahead” .... “don’t give up” ... “never, never give up” .... “always work for what you know to be right”

...  and occasionally mom said, “can’t I just go back to my desk at my fancy job in the big fancy city and take home a nice fancy paycheck every week?” ... “maybe if I promised to give part of it ... even HALF of it ... to somebody else doing all this hard work?”  ....  “and gee maybe can I move back into a nice house with heat, running water, even HOT water?”  ....   “what if I maybe took just like a weekend off ... ok one evening ... to visit friends and relax?”

... but more often she said  “I think I can ... I think I can ... I think I can ....”

And soon YOU hoomans came to help !!  

.... and one day, while building the all new original one of it’s kind, Cat House Number One

...  mom had an epiphany ... and it changed the way she’d forever look at the world.  She was puzzling out the next step .. how the heck DO you build a Cat House anyway ?

... and somebody said .. “I don’t know what to do now?  What do we do next?  How do we solve this?” 

... and mom said, “I don’t know, I’m thinking.”  and that person was shocked and said “WHAT?  You don’t KNOW what you’re doing?  You don’t KNOW how to build a cat house?  You don’t KNOW how to build a sanctuary?  You don’t KNOW what you’re doing?” 

... and mom said, “no, I have no idea what so ever, all I KNOW is that I have to do it, and that together, you and me, and others who’ll come to help will figure it all out, and together we’ll get better and better and together we’re gonna do some serious life saving, now ... help me think ....  how about ....”

... and that person looked at mom and a smile slowly came over her face and she said, “well if YOU don’t know anything, and YOU don’t know what you’re doing ....  that makes me feel a whole lot better cuz I can figure it out too! ....  What if we try ...”

..... and soon Cat House Number One was finished and ready for occupants and the day the first 28 cats from a captive feral colony were relocated was a very joyous one for the hoomans and the kittys who had been facing bleak future without Rikki’s Refuge.

... and mom’s world changed too

... no longer were there the “ones who know how to it” and the “ones who don’t know how” but the ones who are “willing to” try, try, try again and figure it out, and the ones who “just ain’t a gonna” !!   

... and the ones who’ve stayed with Rikki’s Refuge over the years are the ones who try, try, try and in the end do wonderful things and figure it all out !!!  And have made Rikki’s what it is today !!

... and the person who asked that of mom all those years ago? .... she’s still here .... she was a huge driving force behind the Toyota 100 Cars for Good and instrumental in the creation of Rikki’s proposal to Toyota, and then of our advertising campaign after we were selected to run in the contest, and in the joy of winning a new Toyota for the animals!! 

... thought it was a one day contest, did you?  .... just 10 hours of hard work begging for votes ???  Uhhhh Ahhhhh .... it was months and months of prep work.  Making videos, getting pictures, getting testimony, filling out grant paper work, writing endless documents, answering endless questions, interview, interview and more interviews ...  hundreds and hundreds of hours just to get accepted as a finalist so we COULD even run in the contest ....  and then all the set up and advertising, both for votes and that were required to be in the contest ....  WOW ....  all those hours of hard behind the scenes work !!!  

... and you know who you are!  And you hate it when I say your name ... but you know !!!  I just hope you know how much mom appreciates all your hard work and all you’ve done to make Rikki’s Refuge what it is today .... and to lead us into the future ... to where we are going !!!!  

... all YOU behind the scene-ers ... you know you’re making history and saving lives ... and you do it just cuz you feel it in your heart ... feel that warm feeling of knowing you helped somebody else ... that you made a difference to the world ... and to one animal TODAY !!!   Thank you all !!!!

YOU all together have made it happen

from the back breaking labor .....

to the figure it out on a shoestring budget .....

YOU who have turned THIS .....

into THIS ....

..... now under the Umbrella of Protection of

Rikki's Refuge No Kill Sanctuary 450.257 acres !!!!!

Hurray !!!!! Annexed YESTERDAY to Rikki's Refuge ..... The area in blue on the map below.

... the area in pink was the original, donated in 1998.

... the yellow annexed in 2005

.... the blue today

.... for EVER AND EVER another 63.9 acres saved for the animals !!!!  AND with a house that visitors can stay in when coming to volunteer !!!!! And where we can do spaghetti dinners and little seminars and things !!!!! AND a really nice 9 stall barn !!!!!! And several pastures and out buildings !!!

... we'll even have a building to work on things like the tractor OUT OF THE SLEET and .... lots more woods for the wild animals ...... and it all touches Rikki's Refuge !!!!!

... now serving 1295 (saved yesterday: four turkeys, a guinea hen, a duck with a cast on her leg and a dislocated knee) domestic and farm animals on 110 acres and countless hundreds, thousands of wildlife 340 acres of protected pristine woods and wetlands !!!!

...  with your hard work, your dedication, your support, you donations ... every thing you’ve done, even the littlest contribution you think you gave ... is a GREAT BIG HUGE contribution towards making a better world move forward ... a world where more animals are saved ... more are given a chance at happiness ... more hoomans are taught to embrace the dream of peace, love and kindness ... and more hoomas begin to exhibit kindness, caring and compassion in their daily lives ....

THIS ... YOU ... HAVE DONE !!!! 

And I thank you !!!!   I THANK YOU so very much !!!

....  from these four turkeys who’ll be having Christmas dinner WITH us ...  not .....    (click the picture to start the video)

... from this precious duck, who’s dislocated knee was set and casted before she came to Rikki’s and who will recuperate in our hospital with loving care every day for the six weeks she’ll need care ... until she’s ready to join our happy flock

... from this guinea hen who came to Rikki’s cuz they said she was just too noisy doing her job!

YESTERDAY YOU SAVED THEIR LIVES .... because without YOU there to help ... they had no options left ...  well, at least no nice options !

This is what you’ve made it all about ... all about saving lives ... today ... yesterday ... tomorrow !!!!

THANK YOU !!!   FOR BEING YOU !!!

And THANK YOU for your kind and generous Christmas Donation to help us keep saving lives tomorrow and into the future !!!   http://rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php

Even a donation the cost of skipping a cup of coffee, will feed many animals.  On our shoestring budget, and thru the countless hours of volunteer work, negotiating, begging, driving (at their own expense), our volunteers make it possible for us to STILL FEED FOUR ANIMALS FOR EVERY DOLLAR  you donate !!!!  

And thanks to volunteers who slave over computers, their own or donated ones, who donate the paper, the stamps, all the necessary office supplies ....  our overhead is no more than 2 or 3 pennies on each dollar ... so that means your money is really put to saving animals !!!!   Not to paying executive and office staff ... not to all kinds of froo froo stuff ... BUT RIGHT TO THE WORK OF FEEDING AND CARING FOR THE ANIMALS !!!!

Thank you for making it possible !!!   And thank you for your help TODAY !!  http://rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php

And now I wanna SING about what YOU do to me !!!!

... cuz I love you so very very much !!!!

   ... Thank you !!

     ....  Opie and all my friends