February 13, 2021 Saturday at Rikki's Refuge

February 13, 2021 Saturday at Rikki's Refuge all in a day's work .... photos by those caring for the animals (you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate ) What a miserable day !!! Light misty sleet coming down. Temps a little above freezing in the middle of the day. Ice building up. Dripping off trees, roofs, icicles. Icicles growing to 3 feet long ! Some of us opting to stay inside and dry Others not phased by a little ice at all And some of us are delighting at the icy muddy wasteland it’s become around here ! By 2 pm ever thing had at least a quarter inch coating of ice Clarence says his hands are red and numb, but no matter what, the hoomans at Rikki’s keep right on doing the tasks the animals need them too. WHY? Because they truly love their charges and want them to be well fed and comfortable and happy. Ol Man pulled the straw a Quality Control Officer today checking off that every bucket of food going to be carried to every area is properly topped off. Everything will be hand carried today because with the ice and snow, it’s far too slippery to drive. Each load will be less than a person’s maximum carrying capacity too because they have to be so careful to avoid falling on the ice and mud. Quite frankly, it’s utterly miserable out here !!! Our kitties are currently eating about 90 pounds of dry cat food a day. In addition to the hundreds of cans of food. The colder it is, the less they can absorb solar energy, the less they’re out running around, the more they need to metabolize to keep warm. Our average is about 80 pounds a day. That means we need between two and three of these bags of food EVERY DAY. The very cheapest place we know to buy dry cat food right now is Tractor Supply’s Multi Cat. Right now it’s $18.99 for 44 pounds. You can buy the cats a bag or two at https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/multi-cat-dry-cat-food-40-lb-bag?cm_vc=-10005 for pick up. Be sure to pick Orange, VA as the pick up location and list the pick up person as Rikki’s Refuge, and then us know the order number, what you ordered (cus you can get the bigger animals cracked corn and sweet feed and senior horse chow too) and the name you ordered it under. Please pass this into on to me at m.me/KerryHilliard and I’ll get right over to Tractor Supply to pick up. They won’t call us when an order is ready, so I need to know from you !!! Thank you !! As the sun starts down .... few animals are still about ... the hoomans will be working well into the night, while most of the animals will stay in and dry and out of this miserable weather. May we see the sun again someday !! Because YOU care there is a place called Rikki’s Refuge ! Because YOU donate the 1200+ residents will be well fed again tomorrow !! www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc) Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc) THANK YOU !!