Rikki's Refuge: Oct 5, 2018

Friday, October 05, 2018

Rikki's Refuge 20th Birthday Party

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RIKKI’S REFUGE

Rikki’s Refuge Animal Sanctuary

Celebrating 20 Years of Helping Animals in Need

20 Years of Love and Compassion

Family Members, Donors, Volunteers, and Sponsors are invited to join us on October 13, 2018 from noon till 4 pm at our Vincent D. Cat Memorial Life Center to celebrate our birthday and see the good work that YOU have done and visit the animals that YOU have saved !

Bring fresh fruits and vegetables to feed the horses, cows, sheep, goats and pigs (over the fence at the Life Center) as you stroll about. Mingle with the cats at the Life Center and the dogs who’ll be strolling about on leash.

Special behind the scene tours at the Refuge where many roam free for Rikki’s Family Members ONLY.

Don’t know your ID number? Want to become a Rikki’s Family Member? Just ask. BUT be sure you contact us in advance for behind the scene safety details, including ages permitted, dress code, walking distances, etc. We must keep EVERYONE safe as you interact UP CLOSE with the animals behind the scenes in a wild safari setting! E-mail Events@RikkisRefuge.org for details.

Cake Cutting at 2 pm while founder, Kerry Hilliard, speaks about the first 20 years !

Please let us know well in advance if YOU want some cake. E-mail Events@RikkisRefuge.org so we have enough for YOU !

Come celebrate with us on October 13 from noon - 4 pm

Meet the animals that you have helped us save!!

Bring BIRTHDAY GIFTS for the animals!
OR HELP THEM RIGHT NOW
www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate

** Funds for Medical Care

** Funds for Winter Hay

** Canned Cat Food

(pate preferred)

** Canned Dog Food

(pate preferred)

** Dry Cat Food

** Sweet Feed

** Cracked Corn

** Senior Horse Feed

** please NO dry dog food - that is the one thing we get more of than we can possibly use
www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate to help them today

“When we care for every living creature on earth,

we will stand on heaven’s ground.”

Your kindness has kept the dream alive

at Rikki’s Refuge since 1998.

Thank you for your support which has made it possible !

Kerry Hilliard, founder of Rikki’s Refuge, answers ..........

Why have you chosen to do what you do?

Because I believe everyone deserves life. Everyone deserves love. Everyone deserves respect. Everyone deserves trust. Everyone deserves a home. Everyone deserves to be important, simply for who they are.

Everyone means the elderly, the differently abled be it mentally or physically, the ill, everyone, without exception, no matter how many legs they have or how long their ears are.

Over 40 years ago I first looked into the eyes of an animal that had been abandoned by everyone he loved, everyone he trusted, discarded from the only world, the only family, he had ever known, and now he knew he was about to be killed and tossed in the trash simply because there was no one else to love him, no one else who cared enough to let him live. I could see it all in his eyes.

No one should feel that kind of pain, that kind of loss, that kind of hopelessness of losing everyone, everything they love, being betrayed by the ones they so fully trusted, losing their whole world, and now their life; all because nobody cared. Trust, respect, love; these are things we, every living being on this earth, want and live for.

Absolute breach of trust is a horribly devastating thing. I knew I wanted to make those broken hearted, betrayed, untrusting, lost and scared souls find trust, love and a happy place again.

Since looking in those hurt, untrusting, unloved, abandoned eyes that day, all I’ve wanted to do with my life is see eyes like his become happy, trusting and joyful again. His eyes became the driving force in my life and what I have lived for every day ever since.

His name was Justin, and he didn’t die that day. He was a little tabby cat and instead of dying, he came home with me and shared my home for the rest of his life, a little over 16 years.

Now, more than 40 years later, there have been thousands, almost ten thousand, eyes like just like his that I have looked into and have helped to change from untrusting, sad, fearful and unloved, to trusting, happy, loving, and joyful, and I have given each one of them a home and a family to call their own.

What more can anyone want in life?

What makes Rikki’s Refuge so special?

Rikki’s Refuge, and all the humans who have made it happen, the donors, the volunteers, the staff, are very, very special. Yet they are no more special than everyone working towards the same goals everywhere. None of us can do it all. Yet we can all do enough to count. When everyone chooses to help, then together, we will do it all, and no one will be left to suffer and die for lack of love and a home.

Rikki’s Refuge is no more special than the adoption agencies who find new loving and caring homes for those abandoned and born on the street. No more special than those who rescue the abused. No more special than those who work to make speutering available to everyone. No more special than those who educate the masses.

Rikki’s Refuge is different, in that we offer a life long home and care. We are blessed to have the land, the volunteers, the donors and the staff to help us build and maintain housing and to care for everyone every day; to care for them as in feeding and cleaning and giving medications. And, just as important, to care for them as in loving and treating them all as beloved family, no matter what.

That is what sets Rikki’s Refuge apart from most other animal organizations: the ability wonderful donors and volunteers have given us to provide caring, loving, forever, life long, family environment homes to all the different creatures who inhabit our many neighborhoods; Feline Fields, Doggy Downs, Piggy Paradise, Horsey Haven, Chicken City, Ducky Digs, Goosey Gardens, Ramsey Residence, Capri Corners, Pigeon Palace .... and all the other areas designed just for the happiness and comfort of their residents.

I thank every single person who has made my dream come true and who has stood by me the last 20 years thru the good times and the hard times. May we share another wonderfully successful 20 years together at Rikki’s Refuge !!!

Your Birthday Gifts of generosity and love, give over 1200 animals a place to call home. Your kind and generous donations mean the world to them !!

_____ YES, I will be there on Oct 13th to

CELEBRATE with the animals !!!

What is YOUR favorite Birthday Gift for the animals?

_____$12.50 buys a case of cat or dog food

_____$57 gets a check up for a senior

_____$800 buys hay for one week

_____$324 feeds everyone for a day

_____$119 worms everyone for a month

_____$1297 provides total care for a day for everyone

_____$217 buys a roll of fencing
www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate