Good Morning Good News !!!! March 3, 2015

Friends don't let friends soak up the sun alone ............. Monday was the first day in a long time we could hose the poop off !!   Can't clean outside with water when it freezes.

What a winter we’ve been having at Rikki’s !!!    Some super cold .... I mean REALLY cold nights .... and days that are not above freezing .....   brrrrrrrr

Jessy all bundled up and getting fresh water to the animals.  Though da hoomans don’t got warm furry coats .... it’s up to them to provide for those who do.  In the super sub freezing temps, drinking water freezes over QUICK .....  so it means filling them every 2 to 4 hours ... all day ... and all night .....    

The livestock drinks 400 gallons of water a day .... and when it ices over, even the 4 wheel drive truck won’t get around .....  so all that is hauled by hand and foot ....  all day .... and all night ......  

And when the ground is covered in snow and ice .....  there is no grass to eat ....  the hay bill has reached record highs ....  $800 - $1,000 a WEEK .....   but everybody has to eat !!!

The staff ....  and S***ty Britches are thankful for the Life Center.  It’s a great place to bunk in when the weather gets bad and you might not make it in, in the morning.   Or those nights it’s so cold it takes several people on duty to keep everyone’s water trough filled with water ... not ice.

This little kitty came to Rikki’s cuz she had monster diarrhea.  She could never be cured and another rescue was gonna kill her.  Yeah ....  dead .... cuz you poop too much.  

Well at Rikki’s we say, let us work on fixing you, it may take a long time and it may cost a lot of money, but let us try till we find the right meds for you .....  or if you always have accidents ....  well that’s ok ....  we love you too.

She arrived at Rikki’s without a name.  Poor little kitty.  Wayne began to examine her .... and the first thing she did was have a great big huge monster accident ....  all over Wayne .... and in the pocket of his britches .....   and so she earned the name S*****tty Britches ....

She’s a lovely little gal and she’s all cured up now and poop in the litterbox just fine, just like everybody else.  She needed lots of worming for lots of icky things and it took a few weeks to get her going normal ....   but it was well worth the effort of the clean up and the medication and the figuring it out. 

Now she’s up for adoption and she lives at the Life Center hoping to meet her new furrever home soon.  In the meantime, she’s requested a name change !!!   Watch for the up coming raffle to re-name this beautiful little gal !

She loves to watch the reflections of what’s going on in the TV ... she spends hours watching ....  And she was specially cited when the staff brought a movie to watch !!!!

Ya gotta admit .... all that snow looked pretty ......    when it was fresh and new.

Feline Fields

Nellie, Opie’s biological mom, in the snow.   
She liked going out in the daytime, but came in at night.

Beauty absolutely LOVES the snow

My hoomans are happy to be able to start cleaning up all the poop that got locked down in the ice and snow.  Yeah ....  did you know lots of dem aminals poop on the ground?  Yeah!  Disgustin, huh?   Not nice clean aminals like us kitties ....   we use poo boxes -- well most of us -- so it's easy for da hoomans to take it out and get rid of the stinkin poo ....    But dem Dawggies and horses and cows and sheep and goats .... they all poo on the ground ... and da chickens too !!! 

And oh my you should see how much poo comes outta a goose?  I think like maybe a 20 pound goose poops like 10 pounds !!!!  They are poop factories !!!  

These crazy geese don't care that there is snow on the ground -- they want to bathe! They are so grateful that the employees at Rikki's Refuge make sure that they have fresh, unfrozen, water every day!

And you know how poop is warm when it comes out?  Well maybe you don't if you're a hooman.  You never check it out and sniff it or nothin.  But trust me, poop is warm.  And when you poop on the ice or da snow, it melts a bit and sinks down and gets stuck.  

Da hoomans have been cleanin up with pick axes tryin to get it out ....   but they ain't a been so very successful.  Poor hoomans .... always failing in the war between aminal and hooman .....   and so all dis poop .....  and you know there's about 600 pounds of it generated every day .....    all dat poop for the last week or two that has been locked down and frozen and not smelling down there in the ice and snow .....   you know what happens when da ice and snow melts?

Uh Oh ....  yup !  Dat poop thaws out too and is real gross and when it warms up quick Pwwwhhhhwwweeeee it gets to be stinky real quick .....  so now hoomans can start on the clean it up ....  it's gonna be lots of truck fulls !!!

How bout comin out to volunteer and help scrap up the poop from all over !!!!  It's gotta go ....  be a sport and come help clean it all up !!!!

This is what Joey thinks of winter

The Peacocks are already in full bloom and ready for Easter !!!

Not all the free range cats cooperated when they were told they had to come 
in at night cuz of the extreme cold.  Here’s what Smoky Joe had to say !

Timmy prefers to be inside catching a sunbeam

Everybody’s appetite is up during the cold weather.  Our food bill is more than 50% higher now that it will be in the summer !!  HELP .....  the pantries are RUNNING LOW ...... 

Right now, thank goodness, we have lots of canned cat food.  Every single kitty gets 
canned nums on cold days.  We could use some dry if you can spare us a bag or two !!

Calvin:  I’ll get the dirty double crosser ... 
trying to pass a basketball off as a pumpkin !!

The snow didn’t stop the turkeys from shooting basketball on their lunch break

Recently, Audrey & Harold Haley were able to attend a tour at Rikki's and were kind enough to share their experience with us.  For more information about our tours, email us at tours@rikkisrefuge.org and check our Facebook and website often!

Kiki waiting for March Madness ..... 

Sunset in the snow

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

WE  ARE CHANGING THE WORLD

ONE DAY AT A TIME

ONE ANIMAL AT A TIME

THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF

RIKKI’S REFUGE

A PART OF OUR POSITIVE FUTURE

Without YOU

none of us would be here

praying for spring  !!

THANK YOU !!!!!!

Your donations saved every one of us and will keep us all alive in 2015 .... we pray.  Please HELP US as we keep our pantries stocked  !!!!   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

PS:   Why do we bring you fun and laughter and good times?  Cuz we’ve already had all the hard times and the drying and the pain we can stand.  Being in rescue isn’t easy.  You know that.  It doesn’t matter if you’re the rescued or the rescuer.  You’ve shed a lot of tears.  You’ve seen a lot of sadness.

Our rescued come to us sad, hurt, in pain, both physical and emotional.  I could take picture of their sad little faces.  Pictures of them peeking out at us in terror.  Snap photos of them when we didn’t know if they’d live or die.  Those kind of pictures that make great “befores” in the before and after albums. 

I find no dignity in that.  In exploiting their pain and their suffering. 

Nor is that how they want you to know them.  They have overcome horrible obstacles, they have suffered from neglect, some have deliberately been harmed.  They have cried.  They have been ripped away from the ones they love with no chance of ever seeing them again.  They have been hurt, alone, unloved, depressed. 

They are not victims.  They are heroes.  They have overcome their pasts and they are now happy at their real live forever home .... Rikki’s Refuge.  They’ve formed bonds, they have families, they belong, they are loved. 

They have friends of many species.  They have love and comfort.  They have respect as the individuals they are. 

They want to be know as happy fun loving guys and gals.  They have forgotten the bad times, they live for the good times.

Our Rescuers have seen it all.  They work hard long hours to make lives better.  They see horrible things.  They see the sadness and the loneliness and the despair in the world.  They help the rescued to learn to love again.  They do their best to help them heal.  Sometimes they can’t, sometimes the damage has been just too much.  Our rescuers cry.  A lot.  But then they must smile, they must go on to make the lives of others happy and carefree.  No one is carefree without somebody backing them all the way, somebody who loves, who cares, who is there. 

Our rescuers can look at every animal and remember the poor sad soul that arrived on the doorstep .....  and they can smile at the happy carefree critter they are today.

We all need more happiness in the world.  We need to smile.  We need to face the bad times and be able to go on.  We need to let the unhappiness go, and keep the happiness.

And that is why we bring Good Morning Good News .... good news about the animal world and especially about the residents of Rikki’s Refuge.