Rikki's Refuge: Nov 2, 2014

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Good Morning Good News !!!! November 2, 2014

Oh Hi !! You caught me just having a snack !!

Welcome to November on Planet Earth !!! Isn’t the earth really pretty this time of year? It gets all orangy, just like me !!! The trees look like me ! The sun looks like me ! And mostest of all ... the pumpkins look like me !!!

I was so scared the cows might think I was a pumpkin and gobble me up. I’m orange and kind a round and sort look like a pumpkin. But if they saw my tail and ears maybe they’d know I was a kitty and not a pumpkin. I must be pretty awful to get eaten ... don’t you think?

Uhh scary thinking bout it ... all chewed up and mushed up in somebody’s tummy and then pooped out in a litterbox ... ickk .... I’m glad you hauled in those pumpkins so the cows didn’t eat me. Please don’t eat me !!! Ever ... and please, this holiday season ... don’t eat my friends ...

And so .... all these trucks and ... all these vans .... and all these suvs .... and even all kinds of little cars ... kept rolling in, more and more and more.... and they all had pumpkins for the critters !!!!!

It makes all the animals so happy to get pumpkins. Well everybody but me and Duke and our kind. We’re not so much on the pumpkins. But look .....

Rikki’s now has Official Poster Cat for Pumpkins !!!!

Lots and lots of our critters are very happy today numming away on pumpkins !!!

And that’s all cus of YOU !!!!!

Thank you my HEROES !!!!!!

Now I want to tell you a cool story

about pumpkins and a guy named Rob.

If you were with Rikki’s before 2007 I’m sure you remember Rob. He went to be with our friends at Rainbow Bridge just a months after the 2006 pumpkin run. He was a big pumpkin hauler of the best kind. Rob had a great big truck and a great big trailer and he and Joe would do run after run, bringing in pumpkins to the animals.

Well this year friends of his family helped haul pumpkins in his honor .... and while they were doing that his sister Carole was putting up No Hunting /Trespassing signs around the family’s property. Since she’d had a couple encounters with hunters she went to put on Rob’s bright reflective slicker so she’d be safe. She reached into the pocket and found a folded up packet of papers. It was the minutes for a Rikki’s Refuge Board of Directors meeting - including a report on Pumpkin Picking Oct. 31, 2006 with Rob having his trailer to get pumpkins from Richmond. The report was about Rob and Joe working on the nature trails in the woods and color coding them with stencils to paint.

Rob’s mom wrote last night, “How crazy is that? Here my friends are...at Rikki's doing pumpkins...and Carole is in the woods in his jacket marking property. It was one of those 'moments'!”

And as sure as I know I’m orange, I know it was Rob letting us know that our friends at the Bridge are watching out for us !!!

Waves to Rob ..... we love you dude !!!

Donation Dynamo Award !!!

Has to go to Bill Isen this week. Did you know that every Saturday from noon till 2 pm Rikki’s Life Center is open for Donation Drop off. The gates are open and you can just walk - or ride - on in and drop off any needed supplies for the refuge or for Re-Tail the store.

We especially need bleach, laundry detergent and paper towels right now.

Keeping every last nook and cranny at Rikki’s sanitized for the critter’s protection is a huge job. It takes a lot of supplies and a lot of labor. A whole lot !!! You should see the mess 1300 animals creatively make every day !!

We’ve been working hard to get Rikki’s finances back in the black before winter. Expenses go up in winter, more feed, straw, hay, propane .... it all adds up. If we don’t start with a clean slate, we’ll never get thru the winter.

If you’d like to help .. you can stop in at Donation Drop off and drop a donation off in the nice big donation box ... checks, cash, and even instructions for making a donation from your credit card will fit in that box !!

And you can bring bleach and cleaning things and food ... yes FOOD ... I love it when you bring FOOD ....!!!!

And so my Uncle Bill dropped in and guess what !!!! He made a really nice, really big donation to help us keep Rikki’s Sanitized !!!! Isn’t that nice !!! I think he wins the Donation Dynamo Award for this week for his great big huge help !!

Thank you Bill !!!!

WHO sill be the Donation Dynamo next Saturday ..... will it be YOUR picture here ???

Did you know you could be a docent?

Do you know what a docent does? A docent is there during Donation Drop off to greet folks, to let them meet me and which ever kitties are at the Life Center that day -- this week it was me and Timmy and Hairy Toes and Yetti and Rose and Calvin .... and Raleigh .. but you’re not allowed to meet her unless you sign the extra long heavy duty liability waiver about kitties who are sometimes a bit psycho ....

This is me and Timmy talkin to Lolly who’s our docent lots of times !!!

and Calvin too

Just ask me how you can join us on Saturday and be a Docent !!!

Maybe YOU can drop off some much needed supplies ... or money to pay the bills NEXT Saturday and YOU can be the Donation Dynamo of the week !!!!

Or if you can’t, you can help me right here ... just click ... www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate

Though pumpkin hauling isn’t officially Donation Drop Off .... it is really good donations ... So I just have to include Fred Friedman and Nora Eldridge who did the coordinating this year. And that’s not an easy job. Fred did the Northern Virginia area and Nora our Southern Tier around Spotsylvania. It’s lots and lots of phone calls and emails rounding up the places that will give us pumpkins and then more begging and scheduling and begging and phone calling and begging and emailing and begging to get people to show up at scheduled times with vehicles and to load and to drive to Rikki’s !!!

When you see the trucks full of pumpkins rolling thru the gate -- you think it’s an easy simple thing ... but when you know what goes on behind the scenes ... it’s a whole lot of work.

A special THANK YOU to Cindy Wright who flew all the way from Colorado and rented a truck for the weekend to haul pumpkins !!! Way to go ... now if that don’t show dedication !!!!

I don’t think a Rikki’s soul thinks of hualing pumpkins without thinking of our Pumpkin Princess Candy. Candy always brought out the first load of the year !!! And many many loads there after. For several years she coordinated the pumpkin runs as well and helped to load and to haul. She’d borrow her friends big blue pick up truck, named Blue Dog, fill it full, and drive it down ... then head back for more.

Candy left us to go to Rainbow Bridge in October of 2011. I know she’s up there giving a push to folks to load up just one more truck full !!!

We miss you Candy ... we’ll always love you !!!

I haven’t heard a report in on our run yet .....

I wanted to go scoot along with GGP at Rikki’s 5K Run/Walk/Scoot yesterday ..... I so sorry we missed getting there ...

Thank you Dennis and Crystal Bane for working hard for many months to put Rikki’s 5K Run/Wal together !! I can’t wait to hear about it and see the photos !!

Pumpkins are showing up EVERY WHERE

even at Re-Tail our thrift shop.

If you haven’t checked out this fabulous shop yet -- then get on down to Fredericksburg. Re-Tail is located at 3503 Lafayette Blvd, on the Spotsylvania side. It’s a HUGE building and there is SO much really cool stuff. It’s a thrift shop, but you won’t believe the quality of so many donations. Even some stores give us things !!! So check it out !!!

The Christmas section is OPEN.

AND we are now selling GIFT CARDS to Re-Tail ... what a fabulous stocking stuffer for all your friends !!

Don’t miss Claudia and her friends in our adoption room at Re-Tail too !!!!

Claudia’s colors will match anyone’s holiday decor !!

You can drop off donations at the shop or at the Life Center during Donation Drop Off ..... it’s TIME to clean out and make room for your Christmas Gifts NOW .... been planning on re-gifting that what-ch-ma-call it ?? Now’s the time to do it! Watch our store manager Melissa magically turn your donations of gently used items into needed nums and supplies for the animals ...

POOF

... just like that !!!!

Would you take a moment to vote in the shelter challenge ?

It’s free, it’s easy, and we need your vote every day. The prize is $1,000 to the winning shelter. Prize money has become an important part of Rikki’s funding ... and we need YOU to make that happen !!!

So please take a second to VOTE for

Click on Opie’s nose and enter

Rikki’s Refuge, VA, USA

or click right here on this link: http://www.shelterchallenge.com/web/charityusa/nomineehome?userId=53331&nomineeId=17448

THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME TO

SAVE SO MANY LIVES

... with your support we’ve been able to save so many animals ... it’s only with your continued support that we can continue to care for them each and every day .... Thank you for your kind and generous support for food, medicine, doctors, cleaning supplies ... and love !!

http://rikkisrefuge.org/FeedMe

Without YOU

none of us would be here

watchin the pumpkins come in !!

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 promise to work each and every day to make the planet just a little bit better. If the pictures of the animals you have saved in this issue have made you smile, please take a few moments to make a donation so we can keep them smiling!!! www.RikkisRefuge.org/FeedMe

Love,

Opie