Rikki's Refuge: Oct 12, 2014

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Good Morning Good News !!!! October 12, 2014

May I ask you for a moment of silence while we remember our beloved Candy Erhard, today is 3 years since she went to Rainbow Bridge .... and we’ve missed her every single one of those days.

Napoleon was a very old guy who’d lead a rough life and spent his blissful retirement years at Rikki’s. Napoleon and Candy had been best of friends for many years. Napoleon was always running out to meet Candy when she drove in several times a week.

He left us suddenly, just a few days before Candy did. I’m sure he choose to leave us and lead the way for Candy and be there to greet her at the Rainbow Bridge.

We will always love you Candy !!!

Candy was known as Rikki’s Pumpkin Princess .... arranging, coordinating, picking up and driving tons and tons of pumpkins to Rikki’s after Halloween year after year. We continue the pumpkin runs in her honor ..... and cuz all the animals of Rikki’s love pumpkins ... except the cats and dogs.

Will you help us pick up and drive pumpkins from Northern Virginia, Frederciskburg, Orange, Culpeper, Richmond and everywhere and get them to the cows and pigs and goats and ..... of Rikki’s Refuge this fall? Please sign up to help us out .... Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org

Thank you !!!!

Good Morning to you !!! Good Morning to you !!! Good Morning to you my bestest friends, good morning to you !!!! My my my chicken wake up time is gettin later and later ..... mez do think winter is comin .... Guess it does that every year, huh?

You know, running this sanctuary takes up lots of my time. Just about every second in between me eatin my Fancy Feast, you know. Stupervising hoomans is a lot of work ..... clean up my poo box .... mop that floor ..... mow that grass .... And then sometimes there’s a littla aminal disaster they gotta clean up ..... kind a like ...

The other night when Kiki came in the house cuz of da thunder and lightnin .... that great big dawggie is scared of thunder ... I mean if it’s really bad I mighten hide under the desk for a bit .... but she totally freaks out and will claw down a door to get inside. But then when it’s over .....

Kiki remembers how much she hates being in a house and goes just as crazy to get out .... Kiki is a BIG dawgie ... and Kiki eats door knobs, claws thru walls, breaks windows ... she be kind a like a monster.....

Well the other night BEFORE she got let out after da storm ... she got crazy and she ripped the mop sink out and busted all the pipes and flooded the 9th Life Center .... yeah ... where us cats live ... and ya knowz what we thinkz of water .... so let me tell you Kiki is in da dawg house.

By the time Uncle Doug got inside and let Kiki out ... not long before she’d have gone out thru the floor that she ripped up and was digging thru .... it was one horrible pile of destruction. Kiki is like a crazy tornado with claws and big teeth and one monster destructivoir when she wants out of a house .... oh yes she is .... she don’t just sit politely at the door and say MEROWWW .... she bez a bad dawggie .....

And let me tellz you ... she be in da dawggie houz now .... oh yes she be.

The water lines to the mop sink connect to the water lines to the Quarantine Building .... and da lines over to there have always been a real problem. I guess that’s all my fault cuz I don’t never raise nuf money to do things good and right and da hoomans have to use old material, donated from other projects other hoomans have redone, or left over at stores and maybe been sitting out in the sun a long time and old and .... well anyway .... you see when you gots to put stuff together to make it work ... well sometimes it just comes apart too and don’t work so good.

So here we was the other mornin wif no water to the Quarantine Room .... The worstest part of dat problem is dats where da washin chine is and if there be no washin chine I gets no clean bed .... and that’s not so bad ... well maybe nots for a couple dayz till it get all full of furz ... but it be really bad cuz my sisfur Violet who be very old and she be blind ... she was born blind, so she always be that way .... she sometimes think a bed if the potty box and .... well that be sgusting and I wantz clean nice bed with no sgustin stuff in it .... you know whatz I mean?

So now we had a real problem ..... no water in the mop sink ... cept all over the floor .... no mop sink .... no water in the Quarantine Building .... no washing machine ... well that’s where the big tub for washin dishes is too but they could do that in the bathroom if they gotta .... but that washin machine .... oh my .... just one day without it workin .... and that’s a pile of laundry way way way over my head and just about over mom’s head too .... I mean like lotz and lotz of laundry ... It be really bad.

And well .... I don’t mean to complain and rat on da hoomans .... but .... well .... that wasn’t all their problems either .... You see the electric in the Quarantine Building had been a problem too .... the dryer .... and I need the dryer .... Iz not sleepin on no wet bed let me tell you .... the dryer electric wasn’t workin from underground ... somethin had a gone wrong and it was kind a runnin on a extension cord. So there was a mess.

dem hoomans gotta figure out how to get all that pipe to fit in the big pipe to protect it ... gladz I just getz to stupervize ...

The plumbin and electric to the Quarantine Building had been done three times before ..... and just didn’t work. First overhead so big deep ditches didn’t have to be done .... but that busted ... might a been da peacocks and the cats and efurbody who liked a climbin up there and walkin from one roof to another .... what ever .. but it busted .....

So somebody put it underground .... and it turns out dey didn’t dig the ditch nuf ... and da cold winter comed ... and you know what happens to water in da winter ..... well anyway parts had a gotted dug up and replaced with parts we found layin round cuz I had no more in da bank to give da hoomans to go to store and get good parts ... and well .... it ended up a real mess ...... Different size pipes pieced together and all this .... Uh oh ....

Vegas and Chris stuffin in da pipez

So da hoomans can’t really blame the whole mess on Kiki ..... she just made it have to be NOW that it all gets fixed.

When Uncle Doug came to me and said I need the green stuff to buy pipes and things to fix all this and to fix it right once and for all ...... I counted my green stuff and said ... sorry Charlie ... I don’t care your name be Doug .. It’s Sorry Charlie now ... cuz there ain’t a no green stuff for that. All our green stuff we need for food and medicine .... you be poo out a luck hooman .... you go figure it out.

Uncle Doug got kind mad like and say I be digging this ditch up and I be makin patches and I usin extension cord and this is wastin my timez and I need this all a fixed up right, you little cat, so if you be wantin Fancy Feast again any time soon .... YOU better go figure this out. This job needs to be done and done right, once and for all.

Well I had a stach of Fancy Fest behind the desk .... and I went and counted .... and I figured I’d be ok for like about 12 days if I didn’t eat toooo many times a day .... and I say Oh well Uncle Charlie ..... tough poo .... no green stuff for you .... I ain’t a gonna starve.

Then Violet walked over and pee-ed in my bed and I stomp my stumps and I say, “Oh nice Uncle Doug, you pleaz to go get me clean bed? Look at this stinky mess.” And Uncle Doug be very rude to me and he say, “Silly Kitty .... no water .... no washing machine ... no clean bed ... you gotz da pee pee mess till you get me da pipes I need.” And that bad hooman, he walk out and leave me wif no clean bed!!!!

So I climbed up on desk and I called up da pipez store and I say, Let’s make a deal. I no send my bad dawggie in your store at nightz to tear up your pipes if you give me nuf pipes to fix all this mess and to fix it right .... and I need it right now and I don’t got greenz stuff ..... well the pipez store makes me a deal .... but I still don’t got that many green papers .... and I say ... maybe you takez a chicken?

The pipez man say, “you better watch out you naughty little kitty, I know your mom and you think you gotz trouble now, you trade off a chicken and your mom gonna paddle your furry little butt !! But I’ll tell you what, I don’t want you sleepin in a stinky little bed, and I don’t want your hoomans keep on doing this project all messed up, I’ll give you all the right materials and they all be new and good and will last a very long time AND I’ll give you a good kitty discount, though I’m not sure YOU deserve it .... BUT .... I still gonna need $628 green ones from you pal .... but I gonna give YOU ten days to pay up ... so now you have time to ask your friends to help you out. You gotz 628 friends don’t you? Well that be only $1 each and they can help you keep a clean bed !!!! Deal?”

Iva, Vegas and Chris almost have it all together .... just ... a .... little ... more .... PUSH ... you can do it hooman, I know YOU can !!!!

And so I say DEAL .... and then I say, Uncle Doug you get over here right now, front and center, you be talkin to ME. You go get supplies and you fix them pipes and you get me clean bed NOW. And guess what? Uncle Doug went and gotted me a clean bed !!!! Then wented storz and gotted the pipes .... big pipes, little pipes, long pipes .... oh my gosh ... so much pipe .... it’s all gonna be right now !!!! It be in strong conduit and it be insulated and it be good and should last for a very long time.

Just look at that dawggie Kiki looking all innocent and happy when that truck come in with supplies .... you think she makin any effort to help me pay for all this ... and SHE started it !!!

And it took Doug and Iva digging the ditch lots deeper too so the cold and the ice can’t get in there. .. mmm hummmm that’s what all it took. Then puttin it all together and Vegas and Chris be helpin .... and well .... it was great big job ...

But guess what!!!! There be good workin water and lectricity in da Quarantine Building now .... and the mop sink is all fixed too !!!! So my floors can get cleaned up and my bed stay clean and when Violet pees in a bed da hoomans can do their job and whisk it away to the washin chine and wez all be happy now.

Well almost .... I gotz to find those 628 friends who gonna help me out a bit and help me pay that nice pipez man, cuz if he don’t get his green papers .... I might get putz in a dawggie house and I don’t think I likes that ..... So you my friend, you can help me with $1 to keep me outta da dawgie house?

Iva makes the final connection under the 9^th Life Center ..... I hope we canz figure out how to get him out a there .....

Thank you .... I love you LOTS .... WHOLE lots .... I don’t ask you for helpz when I can make da hoomans find stuff dats good nuff in da barn or somebody give us something old we be happy to use ..... but I really needed new pipez all in da same size to fit together right and to last .... cus it is a lot to work to keep digging it up to fix it ...... and well some things like this and like nums ... you just need ‘em new ....

Thank you.

GOOD NEWS !!!!!

Calvin got dopted !!!! He be very happy. Soon he be goin to his new furever home. A wonderful friend came to visit and spent the weekend at the Vincent D. Cat Memorial Life Center (that’s the new name for our Education Center cuz it’s more than education, it’s all about the good things in life). Calvin nightied with her and she falled in love !!! Now Calvin will be going home !!!

YOU saved Calvin’s life. About 3 years ago, Calvin and a group of his friends came to Rikki’s Refuge. They were barn kitties living in an out of control over populated situation and all gonna get killed. They weren’t so friendly, but they weren’t ferals .... but surly not ready for adoption.

Most adoption organizations can’t wait three years for somebody to get a home .... you gotta be ready for lovin a new hooman like NOW or you gonna die ..... but sometimes when you come form a place .. even a happy loving home place ... you getz scared when you go to the pound .... and if you hide in your cage scared or you hiss then you get killed ..... just imagine how hard it must be to be scared, alone, abandoned, just having lost your whole world ... and you better put on a happy face and be nice and make somebody love in just a few days .... or you die .....

That’s what Calvin and his friends were facing ..... till YOU made them luck and helped them come to Rikki’s !!!! They moved into Cat House #6 and they mostly didn’t like da hoomans very much. That’s ok at Rikki’s .... we don’t play the game of like me or I kill you .... we believe in letting them have their own lives and do their own thing and we are there is they want us ... but if not .. that’s ok .. it don’t hurt our feelins and we don’t resent takin care of them anyway.

After about a year and a half Calvin and some of his friends started to trust again and to get friendly with da hoomans. Some of them are in the adoption room at Re-Tail or thrift store in Fredericksburg .... some are at the Life Center to meet potential hoomans and see who they’d like to go home with.

Calvin has found his very own hooman !!!!!!

Click on Calvin, above, or right here www.RikkisRefuge.org/FeedMe to help other animals, like Calvin get out of horrible situations and get into Rikki’s Refuge and a warm loving furever home. Every life saved is ONLY because of YOU !!!!

Thank you Ron !!!

Squirrel (who’s really a cat) tests it out the new climbing treehouse toy Ron built !!!

Join us this Sunday (TONIGHT)...... We’re finishing up the book, The Four Agreements and we’ll be talking about the next book we’d like to read .... We’ll have a meditation and talk about what every we all wanna !!! It’s a fun night and great time to share and grow .... it’s all friendly and no one’s beliefs are better than anyone else’s .... we all feel what is right for you is right for you !!!!!

Been Wanting to Visit Rikki’s Refuge ?

We have a few Tours scheduled. TOMORROW is our Columbus Day Tour ... if you email me right now at Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org .... I can get you a ticket ... but HURRY ... it’s just tomorrow.

All events and tours and hikes and everything require tickets in advance and all have limited participation. Most of our animals have been thru one trauma or another before finding peace at Rikki’s and large groups of hoomans often frighten them and bring bad unhappy memories and fears .... so we have to keep groups to a size they are comfortable with. When visiting, please remember to be clam and quiet and let them feel only love emanating from you.

November 15^th is Nature Appreciation Day with a Tour at noon and Nature Hike at 2 pm ..... if you’re not scared of a close encounter with Big Foote ..... this is THE day for you !!!! Email me for a reservation package ... Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org

Thanksgiving and Christmas Day tours will start at noon. Email me for a reservation package ... Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org The Christmas Day Tour fills early so get your tickets now .... past christmas visitors will have first dibs on tickets if we get more reservations than we can accommodate.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME TO

SAVE SO MANY LIVES

... with your support we’re able to help so many into their new furrever happy homes .... and to give that life long home to those not quite so fortunate ... Thank you for your support

http://rikkisrefuge.org/FeedMe

Without YOU

none of us would have been alive

to be enjoying this autumn !!

THANK YOU !!!!!!

Your donations saved every one of us and will keep us all alive as we stock our pantries for another winter at Rikki’s Refuge !!!! Take the Opie pledge and Pledge to work each and every day to make the planet just a little bit better. Please make a donation to give everyone here a happy tomorrow !!! www.RikkisRefuge.org/FeedMe

Love,

Opie