Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Good Morning Good News !!!! October 9, 2013












My goodness !!!  Fall is certainly upon us, is it not?  One day it was hot summer and then it rained and turned into fall for sure.  The leaves are a turnin and a fallin .....    Overnight we’re chowing down almost twice what we were just a few weeks ago!!  Even though our minds know you’ll always be there to feed us .... our bodies worry about the lack of food in the winter ... so we flip into instinctual stuff it down while you can mode !!!  Have you found yourself eating more lately?








We’re closing in to the end of the Shelter Challenge
Please vote daily thru the 13th !!
You’re voting to feed the cats and dogs and everybody else at Rikki’s Refuge
Winning contests is a big part of our budget
Please help out !!
Your clicks translate into food !!!
You DO NOT have to use Facebook for voting --- you can use any EMAIL ADDRESS instead !!!   OR vote without signing in !!!


Remember to always vote “Rikkis Refuge, VA, USA” ... if you’ll please, please log in every day and vote for me you’ll be helping me to win food for the animals !!! 


Fall means Halloween is coming !!!

That can be fun and scary.  It’s fun to trick or treat and get good things eat !!  It’s always good to get good things to eat !!   But it can be scary for us animals.  
All those folks coming round, dressed up funny, some dressed up scary, making scary sounds.  This upsets my doggy friends a lot ...  they have jobs of protecting their homes and their families and they don’t know about the fun people have on Halloween.  So they can get scared and they might growl or even bite one of your Trick or Treaters.  So please help them out on Halloween, let them stay inside in a safe room.  Don’t let them answer the door with you to hand out candy.  You never know when a terrible fright might make the nicest dog in the world get scared and nip our of fear.  And please, don’t leave your dog outside on Halloween night.

Keep us kitties in mind too.  Most every body is nice to us.  But there are a few not very nice people who might do not so nice things.  It’s best to let us stay inside too.  Especially your black kitties.  We’re not going to sit on your pumpkins and pose as lawn ornaments for you !!!  Please let us stay in a nice warm room, snuggled up and away from the human fun of Halloween !!!    Thank you !!!


And Halloween Means Pumpkins
Raise your hand (or send me an email  mail@RikkisRefuge.org if you can help haul pumpkins to Rikki’s.  They’ll be pick up sites in Northern Virginia, Richmond, Charlottesville, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg and just about anywhere.  We need folks at the pumpkin sites to help load.  And folks who have trucks, trailers, vans to drive.  Please let me know if you would like to volunteer with the Great Pumpkin Patch Pickin’ !


Do you love food?
Well, so do the animals at Rikki's.
They love it so much that they are given some every single day!  The animals are so appreciative of the food, that they sometimes share their meals with their friends.

Costco and Wegman's in Fredericksburg love to help us feed the animals (and Rikki's bank account appreciates them, too!).  But, we need help getting the food from the stores to the refuge.  Can you help?  The animals will be oh, so grateful!

All you need is a large vehicle (like a pickup truck or van with seats removed, or an SUV) and a couple of hours.  Costco gives us food every day, Monday through Saturday, and Wegman's gives it to us on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  Food from Costco must be picked up between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., and Wegman's can be picked up any time between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Whether you can pick up 1 day a week, or 1 day a month, won't you join our team, and help give the animals at Rikki's delicious, fresh produce?  It helps to keep the animals healthy!
If you can help, please contact Melissa at dogslife24@comcast.net


Rap with Vincent
Don’t pay him no mind about advertising the wrong dates and locations ... he made this video a couple years ago. 

But we need YOUR HELP this holiday season !!!  

We have some good clean fun coming up in Barnes & Noble Book Stores in Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Richmond and Northern Virginia.  You get to be inside where it’s warm.  And you wrap the books folks have bought as gifts.  You wrap, they give a donation !!!  Is that cool or what !!!  We need your help.  Please sign up as a volunteer to wrap for an hour or two, mail@RikkisRefuge.org

This is something you can do at any Barnes and Noble on the planet .... just ask the manager how you can sign up for the Holiday Fundraising Program !!!


Sandy Paws Needs YOU too !!
Sandy Paws is a very good fundraiser at PetSmart.  Melissa has been asked about doing pictures with Santa again this year at Petsmart.  Santa is lined up to provide the lap.  Can YOU be his elves and help out?  Please contact Melissa ASAP so we can secure dates, Melissa at dogslife24@comcast.net


Angel Trees Rock
It’s a fabulous program.  Merchants invite us to put up a tree in their store.  Rikki’s has the trees ... we just need YOU to help set them up !!  We have ornaments with pictures of the animals and a wish list of what they want for Christmas.  The customers pick an ornament and buy a gift for an animal.  A bottle of bleach for Petunia the Piggy, some Fancy Feast for me ....   The customer leaves the gift under the tree.   Every week or day, depending on how busy YOUR store is, you pick up the supplies and restock the ornaments.  It’s easy and it’s a HUGE winter help to the animals.

We’ll have trees in Northern Virginia, Charlottesville, Culpeper, Spotsylvania, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Virginia Beach. 

Will you be an Opie’s Elf and help me collect the nums at one store in your area?  mail@RikkisRefuge.org

VOLUNTEERS
These are all fabulous ways to help Rikki’s Refuge.  Please sign up for an event soon.  We NEED YOU !!!!


I’m not so sure about this Government Fur Low ....
you’d think they’d want Fur High with winter coming .... but I know it’s making some of us skip meals.  Many of our regular supporters haven’t been able to help us this week.  And that is scary. 

The first sign winter is coming at Rikki’s .... is the food bill goes up.  We all start eating more and more.  Longer nights and colder weather and we’re getting ready for winter just the way nature planned.  We’re fattening up and growing thicker longer hair.  And it takes lots of nums to grow all this luscious fur

Winter is coming and we’re trying to fill the pantry so we don’t have to go hungry on a snowy day when mom can’t get out to the store ......

Please help us if you can .....  we’re a little scared now, and it’s not cuz of the ghosts and ghouls coming for Halloween .... we’re getting worried about our next meal ....  Would you help us out please?  http://rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php  


ONE DOLLAR will buy FOUR MEALS .....  $25 will feed ONE HUNDRED of us !!!!   You can just imagine how far we can make $100 go !!!  Thank you so much for skipping a cup of fancy coffee, dessert, or a movie this week.  We so appreciate your help.  http://rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php  

And those of you having a hard time, those without jobs, those of you fur lowed .... YOU are in our prayers.  May better times come to us all soon. 


Sometimes in the Animal World
.... well maybe most of the time, you should expect the unexpected !!!!  

It’s like volunteering Rikki’s Refuge .....  the unexpected always happens ....  and the emus make off with your earrings ....  the sheep squeeze out the gate and you are lost for three days in the woods hunting them down .....   the pigs are overly anxious for their slop and knock you flat in the mud !!!   It’s all in the normal day volunteering at Rikki’s Refuge.

Yet .... YOU can VOTE, help haul PUMPKINS, tote the PRODUCE to the animals, WRAP in the nice climate controled environment of Barnes and Noble and be SANDY PAWS assistant all on a fixed scheduled .... without any unespected .... or dirty ... or scary .... happenings !! 

THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING TODAY!!

I’ve got some fun coming up for you at Rikki’s Refuge.

Saturday, October 19, Full Moon Walk
Saturday, October 26, Halloween Tour at Rikki’s and Nature Hike
Saturday, November 16, Nature Appreciation Day, Tour and Nature Hike at Rikki’s Refuge and Full Moon Walk

Contact us by email mail@RikkisRefuge.org  for details, times and tickets, all events at Rikki’s require tickets in advance.

Thank you for working with us, hand in paw, day in and day out, to care for the critters of Rikki’s Refuge .... we couldn’t do it without YOU!!  Thank you for saving our lives.  http://rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php   Winter is just around the corner ... we’re getting ready to buy winter bedding and stocking the pantry in case of bad weather ....  would you ... could you ... please ... help us out just a little bit?  Every penny counts ... 25 of them add up to feed one of us a meal !!!!

Love you bunches,
           Opie
2013 is the Year of the Purr ....

Join the movement ... we’re adding purr to planet earth !
 Look! It's a great car magnet with the world's most loved cat -- Vincent Cat!!!!
"What Would Vincent Do?"
He'd "Purr More, Hiss Less".

Magnet is $5 each, plus shipping (65-cents for 1 magnet, $1.05 for 2 for U.S. addresses). For other shipping costs (international, or for more than 2 magnets) contact Melissa Felts dogslife24@comcast.net  with your zip code and how many you want.     Purchase your magnet TODAY right here http://rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php


Don't be the LAST person on your block
to have a PURR MORE HISS LESS magnet on your car!
Order YOURS today !!


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