Rikki's Refuge

Friday, December 17, 2010

Good Morning Good News !!!! December 17, 2010

Click on Vincent to Help !

Prayers and healing energy please

to mom's dad. He's in the hospital for dehydration. They're in Thailand getting a boat ready for a sail around the world. He had a bad gout attack and the medicine made him sick and he got real dehydrated. Mom's son and brother are there too and taking care of him.

I want you all to know how much your love & prayers really work. Sam is feeling GOOD, he's jumping up in bed on his own, he's eating a little cat food, he had 4 eggs for breakfast! Tiger is feeling better, poo is getting under control, he's eating a little on his own now. Patches is fully recovered, he has limited vision but is alive, happy & doing well. All this and more - thanks to your love and prayers!

Only THREE Days Left to Vote !!!!

Remember the panic we were in for the last contest near the end? And YOU did it and we won!!! Keep on voting and posting your plea for votes everywhere!! We’re gonna do it agian. You can vote thru midnight PST time Sunday!!!

Vote for Vincent with Pride!

http://bit.ly/VoteVincent

Rikkis Refuge, VA, USA

Lena bunks in during bad weather

Lena, our manager and the one who takes care of us, doesn't want anything bad to happen to us if the roads are too bad to get to work. So she bunks in when the going gets rough. From bottom to top Jake, Niea, Mr Darcy, Smoochie, Miles, Snoop, Scooter, Ginger (not the evil one!), and Lena in her fuzzy zebra nighties!! Stephanie Linhart this is what bunking at Rikki's is like!

On the Seventeenth Day of Christmas,

look what came to Rikki’s,

seventeen emus escaping,

sixteen dangerous ducklings,

fifteen peaceful pigeons,

fourteen peacocks plotting,

thirteen humans helping,

twelve temperamental turkeys,

eleven pouting pussies,

ten crotchety creaking canines,

nine grumpy geese,

eight kicking kittens,

seven guinea fowl freeloading,

six lizards a lazing,

five guinea pigs a gnawing,

four elderly equines,

three burly bossy bovines,

two rabbits a mating,

and a chukar in a cherry tree.

See all the pictures

http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/2010/12/28-days-of-christmas-at-rikkis-to-date.html

Have a Wild Wild Christmas

Reflections of Rikki’s

You’ve now see it all on line! And maybe even gotten your printed copy. They are starting to hit mailboxes. Funny how it takes more time to get some places than others. Friends in England received theirs before some friends in Virginia!!! If you want a printed copy and aren’t on the regular Reflections list, let me know!

In case you’d like a recap in living color!!

http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/2010/12/rikkis-reflections-dec-2010.html

Everybody wants to come to Rikki’s

- get on the bandwagon ...

Would you like to vacation at Rikki’s?

I'm working on a deal!!!! If you had a warm house to stay in, and didn't have 40 animals to sleep on your head, would you like to come and spend a week or a night this holiday season? Let me know - if some of you do ---- I might be able to swing a great deal!!!!

Christmas Day Tour at Noon

Last tour of 2010. Join Jan Chetnik, our professional tour guide, for a trip around the refuge meeting all the happy critters of Rikki’s Refuge. The tour is all outdoors so dress for the weather and before heading out that day call 540-854-0870 x3 to confirm that it’s on. Bad weather shuts down our road very quickly and for your safety we have to cancel if it’s been too wet or there’s any ice.

There is only one tour so please be prompt. Gates open at 11:30 am and the tour begins at noon and runs approximately 2 hours. Our comfort facilities are porta potties (thank you Larry for supporting Larry’s Lou again during 2010, you’ve made a lot of us very comfortable with almost indoor plumbing), litterboxes and the bushes!!!

Admission is a case of canned cat food per person - Special for Christmas. Please feel free to be more generous!!!

New Years Pristine Nature Hike

First event of 2011 - the traditional New Year’s Hike. Over the river and thru the woods, and we’re not kidding. You might find some trails or you might blaze them. Follow Fred’s bright orange vest - and please wear bright orange or red yourself, no hunting on our property but poachers have been known to trespass - and he’ll get you back to the complex sooner or later!!! The November hike took a few twists and turns and ambled thru the brambles - but they did arrive alive and uneaten by bears!!!!

Nature hike takes off at noon sharp. Don’t be late cuz you can’t catch up. Gates open at 11:30 am on the first.

It’s outdoors so dress for the weather and before heading out that day call 540-854-0870 x3 to confirm that it’s on. Bad weather shuts down our road very quickly and for your safety we have to cancel if it’s been too wet or there’s any ice.

Admission is a case of canned cat food per person!

Look at all my Pressies!

Look at all the pressies that came for me !!!! Thank you all for ordering things from our Amazon wish list!!! http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/2010/12/vincents-25-days-of-christmas-to-date_13.html

Thank you so much. And guess what? Mary has made me my very own inbox for my Christmas Cards too!! I’ll be getting up pictures of me and my presents and cards as soon as my lazy mom will pause for a photo shoot!

You all are sending me such wonderful useful gifts!!! Thank you.

Well most of them are useful ...... Snickers isn’t too sure about hers ......

Vincent’s Very own 25 Days of Christmas

On the Seventeenth Day of Christmas

Rikki’s received radios to keep up on any emergencies

seventeen ears a listening

A couple of these solar power / self-crank emergency radios (with flashlight and cell phone charger) would be great for the times when the power goes out AND we’re out of batteries – and that could happen at any time of the year!

Click on Peppers to feed her --- click on the radio if you'd like to buy this gift!

sixteen healthy hoomans a caring,
fifteen seniors breathing easily,
fourteen feral kitties happily helped to the speuter clinic,

thirteen terabytes of memory,

twelve glorious gift cards,

eleven wondrous packets of warmth

ten hooman helpers illuminated to see,

nine domed doggy igloos,

eight cozy kitty condos,

seven guinea pig garages,

six months of warm and wonderful heat,

five gentle, soothing, healing musical CDs,

four lights to help us see all the creatures at night,

three nummy cans food for each of the doggies,

two snuggy pads to keep us comfee,

and one VINCENT eating FANCY FEAST ....

You can have Amazon send it right on it’s way to

Vincent's Caretakers

Rikki’s Refuge

10910 Barr Ln

Rapidan VA 22733

AND it even counts towards Amazon point for Rikki’s cuz you’ll be going in thru our site with this link!!!!

Interested in buying other items from Amazon for yourself or for gifts for all your friends and family? Use this link to make your shopping shop for Rikki’s - it doesn’t cost you a thing - Amazon will make a donation to Rikki’s when you enter their site thru this link!!! http://www.amazon.com/?&tag=wwwrikkisrefu-20&camp=212361&creative=392013&linkCode=wsw&

If you missed any of Vincent’s Shopping Suggestions - here they all are!

http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/2010/12/vincents-25-days-of-christmas-to-date_13.html

Feral Cat Colony Apartment

How do you like this new and improved outdoor ready kitty nesting box Rene Luther built for feral kitties living at colonies!!! Looks like a purrfect home to me!! What do you think?

Please remember the ferals and the other wild animals and birds this winter and share your food with them. They may be too scared to come right out and thank you but I’ll THANK YOU for them!

Last Chance to Get You Pet’s Photo with Santa!

Meet up with our Santa at PetSmart

December 18, Central Park, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Time: 10:30 am - 4:00 pm

check with Melissa dogslife24@comcast.net for other possible times

Are YOU keeping warm?

Where are you and what's your weather?

I asked and this is what my friends said! I love having friends of every species from all over the world!!!

Christine - south carolina, wet, cold and yucky

Andrea - We are in Minnesota and we just got six inches of snow!

Tina - st. louis mo.. COLD and ICY!!

Andrea - Lebanon, Oregon and it is colder than a troll's booty here.

Mimi - ‎65 in Fl.. south Fl

Judy - Carr Indiana...snowing..26 degrees

Jo Ann - Alabama, mild and pouring rain....gross

Ally Leah - Ontario, Canada .. -6 degrees celcius .. wind chill of -9 degrees celcius .. overcast & a lil snowy .. =^.^= xo ♥

Lisa - near chicago...flurries and chilly!

Chelsea - Calgary Canada, -13*C (8.6F) snowing...lol

Martin - dank wet and windy Liverpool. With a little flutter of snow for good measure.

Erin - south georgia ... VERY COLD=^.^=!!

Pookey - Edmonton,Alberta.-18,just digging out of a 2 day blizzard

Morrigan - Eureka CA and it is sunny and 51 we are waiting on a three day storm

that is coming in tomorrow

Lisa - Tampa, Florida-we hit 70 today with bright sunshine. Mid 50's now.

Sharon - South GA, according to natives, very cold, according to this MN feline, time to go out for

a walk! With maybe a sweatshirt on. Very smokey though because we have a forest fire going

just north of us.

Angie - KY....snow, ice in the 20's !

George - Paris (France) and cold rain.

Shannon - Back paddock in Carrum Downs (Melbourne). Tis 23C (73.4F) sunny and; windy (da wind

tis blowings up my skirt...mol!) and I's chasings bugs! :)

Lia - Connecticut...30 degrees. do not like.

Ziggy - Michigan and about 25 degrees and dark (it is night, isn't that like weather?)

Sharon if I can't be in snow, I don't think I'd mind being where you are!

Carol - upstate ny usa 17.8*f clear sky and grass has a bad case of dandruff... let it snow!!

Amilyn - South Carolina. It's wet and a bit windy, but not too cold (to me). Around 45F I think. I didn't need a coat so it wasn't too bad out there.

Kenny - Kentucky--just had an ice storm...I'm comfy and warm--sitting around the fire reading a book and sipping on some catnip tea.

Kelly - Central California, upper 50's F today, hazy. With 6 days of rain on the way.

Melissa - cold, but no pretty snow to make it ok =(

Blackie - Beaverton Oregon . 43 degrees F and rainy

Catresea - Long Island NY. C-c-c-c-cold. Cloudy. And at this point...dark!

Delores - Hiawassee, GA and very windy, rain and sleet washing away a 3 day snow and ice storm!!!!

Tanya - adelaide, south australia... its summer here, should be hot this close to christmas, but its cool and wet... max temp of 24C/75F

Poohdy - Ohio, USA -- snowing and cold. 27 degrees and heading south.

Catherine - Arizona and it is RAINING!!!!!!!! YEH!!!!!!!!!

Terri - In Kentucky ... it's in the teens and we had 6" of snow this morning.

Alice - It was 60 degrees today on the lake....Lake Sinclair...Eatonton, GA. I'm in Brer Rabbit and

Alice Walker country!

Tammy - NE Ohio.Very cold with snow on the ground.

Joey - We is in Richmond...the weather is snoozy and cozy...snowy and colds and icy...perfect for lots of mommy time!!!

Alison - NSW,Australia - dull, overcast, humid, threatening thunderstorms.We's snuggled up on our mum's bed, noses under tails.....

Kocur Slovakia, Košice, -15 Celsius

Deborah - Florida- it's been in the 20's last 2 nights but it's supposed to warm up tomorrow:)

Tanqueray - Hawaii, and nice soft twopical bweezes. =)

Joanne - wolverhmtonn slight snow mate x

Liz - SW Ohio....snowy and warmer than it's been all week...26

BootBlack - L.A., Catifornia. 60 degrees wif sunny skies & big huge clouds. We expectings rain soon.

Helen - I'm in York, UK and its fr-fr-fr-FREEEEEEEEZING BRRRRRRRR! Keep warm Vincent ♥♥

Casper-Bandit - Virginia cold snow 31 degrees

Trooper - Gloversville, NY which is an hour north of Albany. It is very, very cold here with only a dusting of snow. All the storms keep missing us :(

Maria - Cincinnati Ohio. 6 inches of your fav white stuff and 20 degrees.......burrrrr! Come play with my 4 funky felines and a doberman! Inside of course!

Annika - In Finland and it's cold, -15 C. About 20 cm snow.

Wayne - ‎21 degrees with a real feel of 7 degrees. Long Island NY!

Deb - Battle Creek, MI it's 22 degrees F out side. Some snow on the ground.

Stacey - St. Louis, Missouri and 28 degrees! Snow on the ground (a little left!) and icy roads!

Taffy - Sandy Utah......it's 11 degrees here. Tomorrow it's posed to snow agains.

Polly - East London - Cold, bit of snow, lots of ice.....I'm going back to bed. Mummy can go shopping on her own!

Versace - Taupo, New Zealand. It was 27C (84F) here today but it's 11pm now and its about 17C (64F) and I'm off out to chase bugs. Nosetaps!

Peace on Earth

and Love in your Heart, that’s what I’m hoping you have this holiday season. It’s all about love, peace and kindness. Share some today!!

Love,

Vincent

PS - Hey, we’re up to $3,300 and it’s the 17^th of the month - Only 13 more days to go HELP ... We need to reach our $15,000 challenge, if you can spare a buck - it will turn into two bucks!!! Please help if you can. We don’t want to lose any of the $15,000 !!!! Please !!!! Remember YOU get a tax deduction too!!!

http://rikkisrefuge.chipin.com/double-your-donations-christmas-for-the-animals

PPS If you don’t want your Daily Good News, just let me know! A couple of you have said you only want Hairballs with out the Good News!! That’s ok! Just tell me. I’m here to make you happy, just tell me how! If Good New don’t make you happy - I could always start Bad News, but, as you hoomans say, why reinvent the wheel - that’s what you’ve got tv and newspapers for !!!!!

Get Your Pet's Photo With Santa

Meet up with our Santa at PetSmart

December 18, Central Park, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Time: 10:30 am - 4:00 pm

check with Melissa dogslife24@comcast.net for other possible times

This is the finished product that you too can have!!!

Rikki's Reflections - Dec 2010

Click on a page to read in PDF.

Prayers and healing energy please

to mom's dad. He's in the hospital for dehydration. They're in Thailand getting a boat ready for a sail around the world. He had a bad gout attack and the medicine made him sick and he got real dehydrated. Mom's son and brother are there too and taking care of him.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Good Morning Good News !!!! December 16, 2010

Please drop a Penny in the Old Man's Hat !!!

Click on the Penny !!!

Only FOUR Days Left to Vote !!!!

Just look at the lengths I’ve gone to just to win this !!!

http://bit.ly/VoteVincent

Rikkis Refuge, VA, USA

On the Sixteenth Day of Christmas,

look what came to Rikki’s,

sixteen dangerous ducklings,

fifteen peaceful pigeons,

fourteen peacocks plotting,

thirteen humans helping,

twelve temperamental turkeys,

eleven pouting pussies,

ten crotchety creaking canines,

nine grumpy geese,

eight kicking kittens,

seven guinea fowl freeloading,

six lizards a lazing,

five guinea pigs a gnawing,

four elderly equines,

three burly bossy bovines,

two rabbits a mating,

and a chukar in a cherry tree.

See all the pictures

http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/2010/12/28-days-of-christmas-at-rikkis-to-date.html

Do you want

to be even more up to date? Good Morning Good News let’s you know daily what’s going on. If you follow me on Facebook

http://bit.ly/VincentFacebook

and

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000443110622

you’ll hear what’s going on during the day, as it’s happening.

Now you can follow the up to the date, play by play, goings on of the refuge on my blog!!

http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com

Just scroll down the right side and click on FOLLOW. Then you’ll know when I post some exciting news!!!

Vincent Saved the Day !!!!

Brrrrrrr .......

But the good news is it’s warming up ....

It’s up to 57 in the office now .....

Iggy, Sam, Tabatha, Mitzie, Big Red, Fritz and Fudge got to hide out in the bath room cuz it was easier to keep them warm in a small area while the hoomans worked to get the electricity back on.

Mom and me are supposed to stay on the farm and stay safe during snow storms. This morning they said it was coming and Lena told mom she better get out and buy straw and salt. Billy said he needed tarps and wire, too. The load was too big for the goat cart so we had to take the truck. About halfway to the co-op it started snowing.

Before the truck was loaded there was a good cover of snow on the ground. The guy loading the truck was so funny. He didn’t look much more than a teenager and he was resting between each bale of straw and telling mom how he’d been in this job too long - February would make a year - and he was getting too old for this. The lifting was getting harder every month !!!! Mom was snickering.

We needed to buy eggs for Sam and Tiger. That’s all they’re eating right now and mom was worried cuz the chickens aren’t laying many and they just drop them anywhere and it’s gonna be hard to find dinner for Sam and Tiger in the snow. Had to wait in line 40 minutes to check out of Food Lion. They kept yelling, “Hey you cat, you’re not allowed in here.” And I said, then get us checked out quick!

When we got back out to the truck it was really covered in snow!!! Part way home Lena called mom to say the house across the street was on fire and the roads were all blocked from fire equipment and it might be a while before we could get back in. Mom insisted on driving since I don’t have much experience in the snow. She can be so stuffy sometimes! We stopped for a cup of coffee and a can of Fancy Feast.

When we got to the driveway they were finally letting traffic by very slowly - they were staged in our driveway and trying to flag us around and I’m leaning out the window Merowing that I LIVE here, you have to let me go home! The fireman came up to mom’s window and said, “What’s that cat saying?” Mom translated and he said, “Oh my is that the world famous Vincent? Certainly we’ll let YOU get home.”

Please pray for our neighbors. They’ve totally lost their house. One room has a window left. The roof is gone and one whole side of the house. I hope nobody was hurt, not the hoomans or the doggies or anybody else who lived there. We haven’t heard yet. For those of you familiar with our neighbors, it was the green house right across from the driveway that sits back far off 20.

Everybody made it into work ok and things were going well so me and mom went to the office to see what we could fine on e-mail. And poof - the power went off. We thought it was probably from the fire, like the transformer at the end of the street or maybe a fire truck hit the pole or something. There was like 12 fire trucks and all kinds of sheriff’s cars and emergency vehicles. it was a really bad fire. But it turned out our main fuse had blown.

Oh boo. This happens sometimes cus our electrical service is so small and our needs have grown so big. It happened a lot in the summer. And we had some spare fuses on hand. But where were they???? Nowhere to be found. Mom was about to just sit down and cry. You have to go to the next big town, Culpeper to get them. Nobody in Orange has them. Lots of hills to get anywhere and we knew our truck couldn’t do it.

Just about that time Joe crawled out from his cave and said, “why don’t I have any electricity?” He offered to do ANYTHING to get it back, he hates to be cold. Mom said you’ll have to drive me to Lowe’s. He has a big 4 wheel drive pick up. So he said ok. Boogz had to stay home so I got to hop in and ride in the middle!!

Almost to Lowe’s we have to cross a railroad track. It’s right in front of a big sawmill place. We had to stop when the lights flashed and the gate went down. And we waited. Hmmm was there a train or wasn’t there? Finally here it came, real slow. I counted the cars. 1, 2, 3, ..... 12, 13, 14 ... 1, 2, 3, ..... 12, 13, 14 ... 1, 2, 3, ..... 12, 13, 14 ... and the train got slower and slower. We were saying come on, come on get across the road before you stop.

But the very last car blocked the road. Oh Booo. I wanted to get out and play on the train but mom wouldn’t let me. She said sit still and behave! So I did. And we waited. And we waited. Cars and trucks and a snow plow and a UPS truck piled up behind us. And somebody started blowing their horn. Like that’s gonna make the train move!! Stoopid Hooman!

After 35 minutes the train slowly started to chug away. We couldn’t see if it had loaded or unloaded lumber or what. Maybe the driver just wanted to stop and make a snowhooman and didn’t realize he blocked the road. I don’t know. When the gate went up we had trouble taking off cuz the snow had gotted pretty deep by then.

Mom was nice and carried me into Lowe’s since the snow was up to my hips. The door guard looked at me and said, “cat?”. Mom walked right by, pointed outside and said, “SNOW!” He shrugged. We found the fuses, they only had 6 in the whole big store, in the size we needed, and bought them and left.

Meanwhile back at the farm, Billy got out the generator, hoping to get some heat going before everybody froze to death. Lena had gathered the old and the frail and the tropical up and put them in the bathroom which, cuz of the duct work, gets really hot, so it was staying kind of warm.

Last year after the snow, a store donated two big generators to the SPCA. They’d been bought and returned but the boxes weren’t even opened. The SPCA sold them to us - instead of selling them at their yard sale - for a really good price. Some of our wonderful donors got together and bought them for us. Our old generator was hard to keep running and wasn’t very powerful. These were really really powerful. And big and heavy.

So Billy and Wayne get the first one from the tool trailer all the way to the 9^th Life Center, a long trip in the snow lugging a heavy generator. Billy gets it all set up, puts in oil and gas and primes it and OH NO gas starts spewing out all over the place. Something is bad wrong with the carbureator.

So Billy and Wayne make a long heavy trip to put this one away and get the other one. They lug it all the way down to the 9^th Life Center. All worried that it might have the same problem. But it didn’t!!! After they set it up it started right up and worked purrfect. The 9^th Life Center was only at 62 and the heat started working, warming the bathroom up to 70 real quick!!! Meanwhile the outlying areas, like the office and mom’s place and Joe’s place kept getting colder.

Getting back from Culpeper wasn’t too bad. The main street was all blocked up with people skidding all over so we too the back streets. Why do some morons have to go racing around and be so stoopid? One guy didn’t want to wait for the light to turn left - so he went off on the shoulder of the road and right and then tried to flip a u turn in the road and instead did about six spins around - amazingly missing everybody else - and then ended up in the parking lot across the street - and ha ha ha - stopped by the traffic light in that direction.

Back at the farm, Mom got the fuse into place and WOW there was light and everything started working again. She got the heat going in the out buildings. Then turned off the generator and got the 9^th Life Center heat back on the electricity. And here we are, all alive and safe and well !!! Yippee !!! I’m so glad I was here to save the day!

So far nothing is sticking to the roofs at cats or rabbits - keep paws crossed and prayers out that all the roofs stay safe and everybody is warm and safe till summer comes back!

I’m sure you can guess!!! KiKi and Beauty are loving this!!!

I think they’re the only ones!!!

Grandma got Run Over By a Reindeer

Reflections of Rikki’s

Turn your page Reflections Page 19 featuring Prince, Lucky, Polly, Gibson, Cricket, Pepper

Click here to read page 19 http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/Vincent/10112219HYIFJDAN.pdf

Vincent's 25 Days of Giving

with Love at Christmas

On the Sixteenth Day of Christmas

Rikki’s is happy to have

sixteen healthy hoomans caring for the critters.

sixteen healthy hoomans a caring

Time to think of the staff again, this time with a supply of Airborne Immune Boosting tablets. There is no such thing as a “sick day” at the refuge -- the animals have to be cared for every day. These Airborne tablets would give the staff a little extra boost to help them get through the day when they are feeling run down.

Click on the hen to feed her! Click on Airborne for the Hoomans!

fifteen seniors breathing easily,

fourteen feral kitties happily helped to the speuter clinic