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.
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 !
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 !!
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 !!
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 !!
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.
