Meet PIPEN (PIP for short). This
handsome guy is a mini Sheltie and is about 12 years old. He is also deaf and partially blind. He came to us from a sad situation but seems
very happy with his new friends and caregivers at Rikki’s Refuge. He spends his time in the Med Room with our
staff and he especially loves men, as his former owner was an elderly single
man. PIP loves to wear sweaters and the staff has already bought him an
adorable wardrobe.
THUMBELINA and ASHLEY, two formerly feral cats, have
formed a close bond at Rikki’s Refuge.
While they don’t like to be held or cuddled, they love to be admired and
they enjoy posing for photos (seriously!). So of
course we oblige them!
Who do YOU want to help today? Would you like to give a special gift to one
of our animals you’ve read about today? Make a donation to give someone new a chance for life at
Rikki’s? How would YOU like your funds
to be spent? Just tell us !! DONATE ON-LINE at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
FRANK, one of our amazing
peacocks, surveys his kingdom at Rikki’s Refuge. He likes to tell our visitors
“Always be yourself ~ unless you can be a peacock ~ then be a peacock.”
This handsome boy is CAMELOT
(do you love his mustache?) and he has captured the heart of everyone at
Rikki’s Refuge. He came to us with leg
issues, but for now they are just fine - still no surgery required - and he is
a lovebug. Oh, and he loves for his favorite human Tina to hold him and carry
him around like a baby (although he gets around by himself just fine too!)! He
might be a bit spoiled!
The happiest part
of the day for BUZZ and WANDA
is in the morning
when their caregiver arrives.
It’s a joyful time
for them! Our caregiver Lauren
reports that it’s
the best part of her day as well!!
Is your online shopping benefiting Rikki’s Refuge??
You shop online. Rikki’s Refuge gets a small donation.
Have you ever wanted to hug a cow up close and personal? Have you ever wanted
to feed an emu? Have you ever wanted to just sit and hang out with a
goat? We have some real characters here at Rikki’s Refuge and they are all
ready to meet you!! Get up close and
personal with our amazing animal residents and schedule a tour with us! You
must have reservations so be sure to email us for more information! We look
forward to seeing you!!
RSVP by emailing Tours@RikkisRefuge.org
LUCY and PRINCE are two of our oldest
residents.
They are each in their thirties now but are doing great!
They came to Rikki’s Refuge from two different situations,
but have bonded completely and are never far from each
other.
They love visitors and treats, but mostly they just love
each other.
CHARLIE, one of our farm pigs,
enjoys nothing
better than a good
mud spa! Those ears!!
This guy is BULLY, a rambunctious,
playful Belted Galloway steer.
Bully came from a New York petting zoo dispersal rescue.
He actually escaped the auction pen and ran amok in New York
for a week or so! Luckily he was spared and found his way to
a
nice farm in Virginia where he lived for a few years....
and now he calls Rikki’s Refuge home!
Did you know that EVERY meal, for EVERY
animal, EVERY SINGLE DAY here at Rikki’s
Refuge, is provided
by donations from YOU,
our caring,
generous, and AMAZING supporters!
THANK
YOU ! THANK YOU !! THANK YOU !!!
Happiness is being a cat at Rikki’s Refuge!!
Kerry’s
Korner
Thank YOU for spending another year with us at Rikki’s
Refuge. Thank YOU for being kind hearted, caring and doing something to make a
difference on our planet. It’s taken every one of you to keep the dream of
Rikki’s Refuge living on. What a wonderful planet we’d have if everyone was
like YOU !!!
Your generous donations throughout the year of money and
supplies give the animals food and medicine, medical care and safe housing. The
gift of your time gives them love and hope; clean homes and care. Together we
have created a wonderful safe haven of happiness and joy, filled with love; the
kind of world we all want to live in.
We still have our sad times. Giving our animals a home for
life, means someday, the end of their time on earth comes. This year we said
goodbye to life long resident Petunia pig, our first farm pig, who came to us
as an 8 pound little baby, and grew into the beautiful pink 800 pound ruler of
Piggy Paradise over the next couple years. Her longevity amazed her doc, who’d
cut her toenail, ok hooves, every six months as she got older.
Jessie goat came with his brother Joey when his beloved
humans reached an age they could no longer care for them. People told them to
just put them down, they were so old, they likely wouldn’t live out the year
anyway. Their people who were going to a home where they could live out their
natural lives, felt Jessie and Joey deserved the same. And so they brought the goats to Rikki’s.
And they lived another 9 and 10 happy years here. They slowed down, they spent
more time sleeping in the sun, they stole snacks from visitors. Joey left more
than a year before Jessie and we weren’t sure Jessie would survive the
heartbreak. Yet after a few months of extra love and special treats, he rallied
and had another happy year being the first in line to search visitor’s pockets
for treats!
Danny cow had started life as a bottle fed-pet-a zoo baby,
grew too big and was headed off to the hamburger factory when a loving family
bought him as a pet. Downsizing after years on a farm, the family found Rikki’s
for Danny’s retirement years. Though Danny was with us only a couple years
before his heart gave out, he was happy and loved. His friendliness, gigantic size and glorious horns made him an
icon and the one everybody wanted selfies with on tours !!
The natural cycle of life means we can welcome new residents
desperately in need of safe haven. A
family of 9 elderly angora goats came from an elderly couple much like the ones
who loved Jessie and Joey enough to let them have so many wonderful retirement
years. Though Elvis and Lizzie, at 19
years old, recently passed away, we hope Mozart, May, Edie, Miley, Gabby,
Fiona, and Maggie have many more happy years here at Rikki’s.
Eddie the elderly mini horse had lost all his barnyard
friends to age. It wasn’t the right time for his family to get more animals,
but wanting Eddie to have friends for his retirement years, they brought him to
Rikki’s. This tiny little guy bullied the big horses, riled the goats into head
butting arguments, chased the sheep, would Eddie ever find a friend at Rikki’s?
Then Lucky the black angus cow came and took one look at the
big cows and said Mooooo get me outta here! Lucky was hand raised by a precious
young lady as a project to be sold. As
she learned the fate of cows, she did not want that for Lucky. Her grandmother
was the high bidder, found Rikki’s Refuge, and now brings the young lady to
visit Lucky. Who has become Eddie’s absolute best friend and
follower, despite being many times Eddie’s size!
Charlie pig, being auctioned off for BBQ, was bought by a
compassionate soul who found Rikki’s. Joey the sheep, who had no idea what a
sheep was, came and is totally bonded to Doug, the human sanctuary manager, and
follows him every where. Cow Sully was raised from a baby by someone who loved
him dearly. She had to move and found Sully a “wonderful” home. But sometimes
wonderful isn’t. Sully ended up in a slaughterhouse lot, was spotted as
friendly by a rescuer who bailed him out, and ended up at Rikki’s. He was named
Corgi here and has a distinct face, which his original mom recognized when she
saw him on facebook. By then she’d found out he was no longer in the
“wonderful” home. After months of searching and worry, she was once again happy
Sully has a life long home and lots of cow friends. Chicks still come every
year from school hatching projects to live out happy chicken lives. Sad,
abandoned, elderly dogs, like Atticus, Laden and Pip, so missing the humans
they loved and were abandoned by, come to Rikki’s to find love and happiness
and a place in the sun for the rest of their days. Special needs cats like
Gigi, Mookie, Mystique and Pepper make frightening trips from far away states,
even other countries, to find the help, therapy, medical care, peace and
happiness they’ll have forever at Rikki’s.
With YOU and your never ending support, the cycle of life
will go on forever with generations of animals that come to us sad, abandoned,
alone, hurt and sick to be transformed into healthy, loved, and oh so happy to
be alive animals.
Please help us make a difference to the Petunias, Jessies,
Joeys, Dannys, Elvises, Lizzies, Mozarts, Mays, Edies, Mileys, Gabbys, Fionas,
Maggies, Eddies, Luckys, Charlies, Sullys, Atticuses, Ladens Pips, Gigis,
Mookies, Mystiques and Peppers of the world, with your generous end of year
donations.
We COUNT on YOU for their very survival.
Love to you and yours,
Kerry and all the ones YOU saved
YOUR GENEROUS DONATION GIVES
PEACE, LOVE AND LIFE - THE
MOST WONDERFUL GIFT OF ALL
In late August, we welcomed a small potbelly pig to the
Rikki’s Refuge family. To our complete surprise, she gave birth to these five
adorable little piglets on September 1.
LITTLE MAMA is doing great with motherhood and
the piglets, each one completely
different in appearance and personality, are healthy and getting bigger and
stronger every day, although they don’t want to be far from their mama!
This guy ~ he quacks us up!!
MILO and his little buddies ~friends come in all shapes
and sizes at Rikki’s Refuge!!
Milo joined us after someone rescued him from a petting zoo
as a sick and injured baby. Soon they realized it wasn’t much of a life for him
to live all alone in a small fenced area. So he came to Rikki’s Refuge where he
gets to eat leaves and have lots of friends. At Rikki’s Refuge we believe
nobody should have to live alone as one of a kind.
YES, you’ve seen this photo floating around the web
..usually as a “cat lady organizer” or the like.. the picture was taken right
here in the 9th Life Retirement, Assisted Living and Psychiatric Center at
Rikki’s Refuge Animal Sanctuary ... it’s early one morning, about 4am, and our
founder Kerry snuck in and got the photo before turning on the lights. She’d
worked on getting this shot for over a year, sneaking and trying to catch
everybody before they woke up and started begging for breakfast and jumping
down to greet her .... finally one day ... SUCCESS!! And it’s now the most
famous photo of Rikki’s Refuge on the planet!!
“Why does Rikki’s Refuge have so many black
cats?”
To save their lives!! Did you know that many shelters don’t
even try to adopt black cats out? So much superstition about them still
abounds. It’s really silly. Black cats are just like the rest of us. But the
little black kitten in a litter will often never get
chosen. We think it’s really important to spread the good
word about black cats!
SUNDAY, the goat, was found
abandoned in the woods behind our Re-Tail Thrift Store. She was scared and
skittish. Our store staff set up a feeding station (finding out that she
prefers grapes over EVERYTHING). They put grapes out for her daily, and
wildlife cameras in order to establish her schedule. Soon, she began to wander
to a neighboring business to visit her “friends” (she was seeing her reflection
in their windows). However, this was causing a distraction to drivers along the
very busy road and was not safe for Sunday. Animal control was called many
times, but they were never able to capture her. Since she was looking for a
friend, Re-Tail staff put a mirror in the woods so that she could see herself
(thinking it was a friend) and she loved it! So, the experienced staff out at
Rikki’s Refuge was called in to help and Sunday was caught safely and brought
to Rikki’s where she has made new friends, both animal and human and will be
able to live out her life safely and loved.
We LOVE happy endings!!
Meet LARS and NELS.
Our turkeys continue to be
game-changers for so many who visit us at Rikki’s Refuge. Seeing their
gentleness, their playfulness, and their amazingly friendly and funny social
behavior ~ it catches many of us off guard. And then we wonder how we ever
thought otherwise. Two great reasons pictured here to consider adopting a
plant-based lifestyle.
Are you on Facebook?? Did you know you can give to the
animals of Rikki’s Refuge Animal Sanctuary for free? All you need to do is
create your own Facebook Fundraiser! It’s fun, it’s easy to do, it gets your
friends and family involved in a cause that’s important to you, and it makes a
big
difference to the animals! And if you set one up, let us
know and we can share it on our social media pages!
You can find us listed under
“LIFE UNLIMITED OF VIRGINIA, INC”
And hey, while you are on Facebook, be sure you have liked
our Facebook pages:
Each “like” and “share” of our Facebook posts as well as
“likes” and “follows” of our page help us receive more exposure. More exposure
can result in new supporters and allows us to continue to say YES to animals in
need. THANK YOU!!
We are so grateful to you for all you do to create a kinder
and safer world for the animals!
Everyone should have a place to feel safe and loved. You
have helped us create that at Rikki’s Refuge!
This is DOLLY. She was a scared
little girl that lived in a cage for five years. Now that she is at Rikki’s
Refuge she is slowly starting to understand how awesome it is to have cat
friends and that humans are not so scary. She is loved.
$7 will care
for one cat for a week - Will you sponsor Dolly?
PRESTON is the very proud CCO of Rikki’s Refuge ~ that is
our Chief Cheerfulness Officer! He
takes his job very seriously!
At Rikki’s Refuge, the snuggle is real!
BURT, a muscovy duck, is a loner and
prefers
to be alone, but he
has one regular volunteer
who he loves to
“talk” with and share treats with.
THANK YOU to everyone that picked and hauled
pumpkins to Rikki’s Refuge this year!! Lots of pumpkins makes for very happy
animals!
