RIKKI’S REFUGE - HAIRBALLS AND HAPPY TAILS December 1, 2010
The newsletter of thanks from grateful animals to their beloved rescuers brought to you by Vincent D. Cat
We are the happy animals of Rikki’s Refuge who so thank you for giving us the gift of our lives. We represent all the animals, the world over, whose lives have been saved by kind and loving people just like you. Thank you for being an animal rescuer.
Table of Contents
Vincent
Wonderful Thanksgiving
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| Rachel, 10 years after adoption! |
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Remember November of 1998?Resources are Phenomenal
Read Their Stories
Pete is Healed
Left Behind
Fixing the Animals
Save the Humans Too
Help the Community
Volunteers!
Jan
Rene
Giant Donation of Cat Litter
Canned Cat Food
Supplies Needed
Angel Trees
Great Things - Great People Catnip Candy Wraps
Santa Melissa Needs You
Christmas Float
VOTE
Photo Calendar Contest Winners
Good Morning Good News
Reflections
So Much Work Getting Ready for Winter
Please be Generous
Vincent has done what is so traditionally done on Thanksgiving. Eaten himself into a stupor. So I, Kerry, will be bringing this Hairballs to you.
Wonderful Thanksgiving
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. It’s a time I always give thanks for YOU. Thanks to you for believing in my dream. Even when some of you never thought it could never be done. Thought this dumpy, run down old farm, could never be turned into a lifesaving haven for thousands of animals!
Remember November of 1998?
Gosh, do you remember where we were in November of 1998? That’s when we first started hauling off trash. First started feeding the hungry, limping, pathetic hunting dogs that stopped by. First looked around at what would become the Neighborhoods. Doggy Downs. Feline Fields. Rabbit Rotunda. Before we’d ever seen the joy on the face of a pig eating a pumpkin. Seen a pigeon fly for the first time after spending years in a cage. Before giving hope and salvation to thousands of animals.
And for this, for every bedraggled, broken hearted, sad, little - or big - animal that comes thru our doors and learns they will be loved again, they will be healed, they will be happy, I have YOU to thank. By myself, I could save and care for a few dozen animals a year. With YOU behind me, I can save and care for thousands!
Resources are Phenomenal
The resources it takes to do this are phenomenal. It awes me every time I place an order. It’s like having a growing family and going from the single serving sizes to the family sizes to the bulk sizes. We’ve gone from the pick up truck sizes to the tractor trailer sizes. All because YOU allow us to save one life after another. Over and over.
See Their Stories
Pete is Healed
That wouldn’t touch on the ones who come for a few weeks or months, are healed, and move on to a new forever home. Or back to their home. Pete got to go home. He’d come into a shelter with an injured leg. A lovely family adopted him, promising to finish up the vet care he needed for his injury. After 8 months and thousands of dollars his leg still needed more care. They had little choice but to take him back to the shelter.
Thankfully it’s one of our sister shelters who we partner with, so Pete was sent to us for rehabilitation. We have the dedicated, trained, caring staff to spend the time working to heal one patient’s wound several times a day. It took six weeks of intensive care. Soaking, medicating and changing dressings many times a day. But in six weeks his family came and adopted him again. Seven members of the family came, three generations! They were so happy to see him and he was so happy to see them. We all cried as they drove down the driveway taking Pete to his forever home.
And who can Pete and his family really thank? YOU. YOU made it possible. Without your donations of money, time and supplies, there is no way we could save so many animals. Sometimes it’s the cost of medical treatment, a needed surgery or just vaccinations that can prevent someone from keeping their pet. YOU make it possible for them to stay together.
Imagine when someone dies and leaves behind their four beloved pets who’ve lived together forever. They’re now elderly and one of them hardly stands a chance of getting out of a shelter alive, let alone all four of them living their lives out together. Because of YOU we are able to give them all four a forever home together where that bond of love and friendship does not need to be broken. They can live the rest of their natural lives happily together. They may have lost their human, but YOU did not allow them to loose one another.
Fixing the Animals
YOU know how important “fixing” the animals is. It’s a huge step in stopping the over population who ends up euthanized in shelters across the nation. YOU allow us to reach out and educate on the necessity of speutering, to teach in classrooms, to speak at organizations and groups.
Our initial goal was to save animals. Pure and simple. Save the needy, homeless, unloved animals. And by doing that work we find we’re doing so much more and more every year. Handicapped adults and kids come to volunteer. They’re helping us. And we see how much we’re helping them. Giving them an emotional outlet they can find so hard to share with other people. Giving them job skills that will allow them to improve their lives. Teaching responsibility, respect, love and caring. It benefits all the animals, and it benefits all the people they’ll come in contact with during their lives. YOU have made this possible. Click for more photos.
Help the Community
YOU have helped the community. We need a fence built, people come to volunteer and we teach them how to use the tools, how to measure, how to build. We teach people how to build animal shelters, dog houses, bird feeders. We teach them how to do home improvements and we repair and rebuild things around here. Now they can go home and do it themselves!! It gives them confidence, gives them the opportunity to have that fence they so badly needed but couldn’t afford, to insulate their doors and windows. It changes their lives. Often once they realize what they can do, the sky’s the limit!!
Volunteers!
When we reach out to one another - regardless of species - we do amazing things together. Truly amazing! I’m as proud of my volunteers as I am of my animals.
Jan
I’ve watched Jan grow from a shy person, uncomfortable meeting new people, to an outgoing, happy, energetic person giving tours and meeting new people every week; from writing little “Please come to our Open House” ads to wonderful PR articles.
Visiting at an Open House
Rene
Rene came to volunteer. Disgusted with how long it was taking to finish the new leukemia room, she said, “How hard can this be?” She took up a hammer and saw and took off and turned into the Tool Gal. She thought the place looked dull and she took up a paint brush and the Snoopy mural was born. She’d become an artist. Garfield, Piggies and The Feed Store went up next.
And now Rene is selling handcrafts thru Sherri’s Shop in down town Orange! She gives a portion of the proceeds to Rikki’s to feed the animals.
That’s just two of 20 volunteer stories I could tell you. By making Rikki’s possible YOU made these life changes possible for our volunteers too.
It’s truly endless - what YOU’ve done. And we will continue to grow and to touch more and more hearts every year with YOU by our side!
THANK YOU !!!!! YOU ARE MY HEROES.
Giant Donation of Cat Litter
Huge thank you to Mike Wood and everyone who worked together to bring in the giant donation of cat litter. What a fabulous donation!!!
Canned Cat Food
We never get enough canned cat and dog food donated. Especially canned cat food. With 659 cats it takes cases and cases a day. I’ve just had over $1,000 of canned cat food delivered. I’ve got the bill sitting here that must be paid. Please help us if you can.
Supplies Needed
Seems laundry detergent is always something we need too. When you head out to visit on the weekends please bring a handful of necessities with you. Cleaning supplies, paper towels, canned food. Thank you Cindy for the huge bleach donation. That’s something we use by the gallon!
Angel Trees
Katarina has put up beautiful Angel Trees at many locations. Stop by and fulfill a wish for one of the animals!
And here's where you can find them!
- Booth Feed Fredericksburg, 5037 Plank Rd
- Booth Feed Stafford, 1186 Warrenton Rd
- Petco Harrison Crossing, 5717 Plank Rd, Fredericksburg
- Village Feed, 23436 Constitution Hwy, Unionville
- Orange-Madison Co-op, 13323 James Madison Highway, Orange
- Culpeper Animal Hospital, 441 Aspen St
- Confederate Ridge Animal Hospital, 2301 1/2 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Fredericksburg
- La Rue de Beauty Hair Salon, 243 E Church St, Orange
Great Things - Great People
Lots of great things people are doing for the holidays.
Catnip Candy Wraps
Santa Melissa Needs You
Santas and picture takers needed in Fredericksburg - you CAN do it!
Contact Melissa dogslife24@comcast.net
Christmas Float
Come help us at the Refuge this Saturday from 10 am - 3 pm, we’ll be building a float for the Orange Town Christmas Parade on Sunday.
VOTE
Keep voting!! http://bit.ly/VoteVincent Rikkis Refuge VA USA You can vote every day thru December 19th. We’re leading the state and if we hold that standing we’ll win $1,000. If we can get to #3 in the nation (we’re currently at 7) we’ll win $3,000. Even more if we can make #2 or #1. With YOU voting for us, we can. It’s free, easy, quick.
Photo Calendar Contest Winners
Good Morning Good News
Lots of you subscribe to Vincent’s “Good Morning Good News” and hear the daily goings on at the Refuge, so I don’t want to duplicate all his news here. If you’d like to catch up you can do it here: http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/ Lots of cute photos and videos too!!
Reflections
Watch for Reflections in your mail box soon. Here’s a little preview!!
You can keep up - one page a day - with Vincent on Good Morning Good News
So Much Work Getting Ready for Winter
There’s so much work to do getting ready for winter, I’m going to have to sign off and get back on it. Thank you all for being here with us and making this all possible.
Please be Generous
Please, please make a generous, end of year, tax deductible contribution TODAY, you are saving lives and making animals who once had nothing as happy as they can be!! Your donation is so very important to us this time of year as we gear up for winter and prepare to provide what-ever extra care the animals may need.
Thank you for your generosity!! We survive only because of YOU.
Thank you for saving lives each and evey day,
Kerry
12/01/10
The Fine Print
Rikki's Refuge in Orange County, Virginia, is a 367-acre, no-kill, all species, peaceful sanctuary supported solely by donations from kind and loving individuals just like you! We help farm animals, domestic animals, and wildlife. Over 1200 individuals of 22 different species now reside at Rikki's Refuge. Please continue to help us help the animals. To learn more about Rikki's Refuge go to http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/, http://www.rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/, and http://www.flickr.com/photos/rikkis_refuge .
We survive on donations from kind and loving people, just like you. We live on a shoestring and make it on less than one dollar per day, per animal. So if you can spare a couple of bucks to buy a few meals, please go to http://www.paypal.com/ and use our email address of mail@rikkisrefuge.org . We do accept checks, money orders, cash and stuff, too! Thanks for your support. Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960
Your donations directly support the Critters of Rikki’s Refuge. Rikki's Refuge is owned and operated by Life Unlimited of Virginia, Inc., an IRS 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Virginia Corporation. Federal Tax-ID 54-1911042. We hold membership in all Combined Federal Campaigns in Virginia #77674, Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign #3163, PetsMart Charities #1377, iGive, Benevolink, paypal.com (mail@rikkisrefuge.org), your donations provide direct support. A financial statement is available upon written request from the State Office of Consumer Affairs.
Good Morning Good News !!!! December 4, 2010
Thank you Katarina and gang for working on the float all day in the cold. Rene worked on the float too!! Bob, thank you for bringing the trailer for the float and for adding more sun / rain protection to Doggy Downs Clubhouse #6! Thank you Laurie for helping with the float and picking up and hauling the crates, houses, pens!!! Lots of goodies!!! Thank you Ron, for hauling in a truck of lumber to work on Cat House #1 Extension. Cindy for helping with Doggies, hauling in supplies, showing new volunteer Joe around and helping with Santa Photos at Petsmart. Thank you Melissa for doing Santa Photos at petsmart - anybody willing to help on other days? dogslife24@comcast.net Thank you Mary for your help in the office - you keep mommey’s hair from getting gray!!! Thank you Bill for hauling in the materials for the Quarantine Room project! Thank you Mariza for hosting the Board Meeting inside and for feeding everybody - I think you made them all very happy!!!! Tomorrow I’ll announce who got voted on the board for 2011 !!!! I’m sure I’ll still be Chief Spokes Cat, don’t you?
On the fourth day of Christmas, Rikki’s received some light
Some of that icky white stuff is coming down tonight. Boo Boo Boo - make it melt and go away !!!!
