I’m Vincent D. Cat and here to make you happy! You are HEROES! You work hard every day and you deserve to smile every day! Those of you working to save us animals hear so very many very sad things. And there’s lots of very glad things too and that’s what we talk about here! All pawsitive all the time! I want my friends to be happy and smile and know there’s a lot of good - including YOU - in this world!! Be kind and pass it on! Please send me your Good New and Fun Stuff to share, personal or global. Let’s keep it fun and interactive!! After all, if we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane! Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org
Are you keeping a close eye on the progression of my picture every day? Keep watching, it changes day by day. Sometimes it’s very subtle, sometimes it changes the whole message. Wayne Morris is my artist and his insights are beautiful. Leave a comment or email and let him know what you think of his work!
My Favorite Quotes, Today
The world is like a mirror you see?
smile and your friends smile back
Japanese Zen saying
Delicious Quotables
Research tells us 14 out of any ten individuals likes chocolate
Sandra Boynton
Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!
Author Unknown
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.
Jim Davis
Only in America
Only in America do drug-stores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.
Only in America do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
Only in America do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
Only in America do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.
Ever wonder why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
Why don’t you ever see the headline ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’?
Why is ‘abbreviated’ such a long word?
Why is it that doctors call what they do ‘practice’?
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?
Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?
Refuge News
Lloyd stopped in to visit and to bring newspapers. We use newspapers to line cages. Since the economy tanked we had to quite using puppy pads. We’ve taken every short cut we can with out jeopardizing the health and safety of the animals. We used to stretch the dollar into about three and now we’re stretching it into about six !!!!
Got extra newspapers? Pull out the slick inserts and then recycle the rest with Rikki’s Refuge ! It’s one more way you can help the animals for FREE !
Dennis hauled his trailer out filled with buckets of nums for the pigs !!!! Thank you Dennis for the food recycling program!!! For the piggies, it’s the highlight of their day!
Thank you Earl’s Glass for the donation of Plexiglas for windows and all kind of exciting projects that Rene will be making for our animal neighborhoods. Rene stopped by this morning to show me the goods!!! WOW WEEEEE. And she brought banana nut bread and cupcakes, num num.
Mary is here opening letters and packages!!! Thank you Mary for trekking to the post offices and helping mom do all that hard work!!!
Pamela, got your present today !!! WOW I love you. You’re wonderful!!!
Billy and Wayne have just gone out to pick up a donated washer and dryer.
It’s busy out there - a passionate friend writes in: My tally of cats I helped in Dec was 29...all but 7 have been spayed & neutered... many were returned after time for healing...what a brutally cold month we had in Dec...13 are going to winter with me in my office...11 kittens and 2 adults...will send pics of kittens soon for petfinder...on Jan 15th we have another Voices feral clinic, so will be setting traps again in about 9 days...
Speuter Commuter
Big Hip Hip Hurrah to Dr Meredith Vargas and the team that went to Guatemala for the Speuter Clinic last month. This is the third year the week long marathon Speuter Clinic has run in Pana and surrounding areas. Huge congratulations on 217 animals “fixed”!!! We met a lovely young lady who was a vet student on our first trip there. Now Astrid is a practicing vet and Dr Vargas got to work with her and other new vets and student vets to help hem perfect their surgery skills!! And Dr. Vargas is a GOOD teacher, her techniques are great, she has a lot of experience to share and she explains and gives tips. She was really happy about all the teaching she got to do too!!! 22 of the animals they caught to speuter came from the dump. And while there catching them, they discovered three families living at the dump and surviving by selling plastic for recycling and barely making enough to be able to buy a little food. Mayan Families took these three families under their wing and now they have clothes, enough to eat and the kids are in school. Overall it was the best trip yet!!!
Katarina needs you early Saturday - can you help?
I was able to get in touch with the people at Miller farm to ask if we could have their pumpkins that have been sitting in their field. They has tons! A couple hundred at least. They said that we can take them but we have to go when the ground is frozen! That means early in the morning. I set up a time for a few of us to pick them up this Saturday at 7:30 am. So far Melissa Felts has volunteered her time and her truck to pick pumpkins. I will also have my truck and my sister has said she would help us load up. If we could get 2 more trucks and a few more people our pigs can have a couple more weeks of pumpkins and that will save us some money. The more people we have the faster the work will go and the more we can feed the animals.
Miller Farm is just past Fawn Lake about 20 mins from the Refuge. The address is 12101 Orange Plank Road, Locust Grove, VA 22508. Contact Katarina to help out: katarinagalvin@yahoo.com
Pumpkin tub!
JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images
A boy and his grandfather sit in a hot spring bath made from a 229 kg pumpkin at a spa facility in Nyuzen town, in Japan's Toyama prefecture.
If you don’t like pumpkins but want turnips instead
The other place that is helping us is Sneads Farm in Spotsylvania past Belvedere. They have a field of turnips, some of which are bigger than my fist, and some left over pumpkins. Melissa and I are going to take our trucks out there in the afternoon on Saturday to pick up what we can. We would really like a few more people to come help pick the turnips with us. Again the more people the faster the work and the more we can feed that animals!!! We will be meeting around 2 pm. If you would like to help earlier please let me know.
Sneads Farm address is 18294 Tidewater Trl Fredericksburg, VA 22408. Contact Katarina to help out: katarinagalvin@yahoo.com
My Friend from Indy Media Live
Hi, Vincent!
How are ya? As usual, you and all the precious critters at Rikki's are on my mind! Don't know if you were listening to IML on Dec. 28 but, when I asked Tim, the engineer, on the air which show of 2010 had been his favorite, he said, "RIKKI'S!"
It was an awesome moment for me - his gift to me this year is to add another meatless day to his gift to me last year of meatless Mondays - now it's gonna be Mondays and Thursdays! My gift to him is a donation in his name to Rikki's -
I was just about to call Orange County Co-op and put something on the bill, but thought I'd check in first and see if there is another place you'd rather use $100 right now.
Let me know, OK?
Luv ya lots - Any ideas when you'd like to do another radio show? Any events coming up that you'd like to put on the air together?
Your friend - Rebecca
Hey isn’t that cool -- what a gift from Tim huh? I wish all my hooman friends would pick a day to go meatless!!!
Oh look what I just came across on line!
This is about mama's mama. And look at that, way back then she was dressing cats up! Mom must have inherited this fetish!
Live from Vincent Video
Meet Samantha the Feral Kitty
Commitment
Did You Know?
What is the world's oldest animal ?
The oldest animal on Earth was born in 1830 Her name is Harriet, she's a Galapagos land tortoise.
Penguin goes shopping
Good Times in the News
Christmas trees being reused in coastal restoration effort
The Times-Picayune By Jeff Adelson
Parishes throughout the New Orleans area are scheduling Christmas tree collections, most in an effort to reuse the trees to help with environmental restoration. The trees collected are used for restoration projects in Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Lacombe. Trees collected in St. John will go to wetland restoration projects in the parish and elsewhere under a program administered by Southeastern Louisiana University’s Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station. The trees are used to create fences that dissipate wave energy and result in sediment being deposited in shoreline areas affected by erosion, according to a news release from the university.
In previous years, the trees have been deposited near Bayou Gauche to shore up eroding land. In addition to helping to protect the wetlands, diverting the trees away from landfills will save residents money in disposal costs in the long run. “Every year, thousands of Christmas trees are discarded in the landfill — where they take up valuable space and serve no purpose,” Stouder said. “If these trees are brought to one of the collection sites, they will be used to protect our coast and our wetland areas.”
Greenaid: Guerilla Gardening Vending Machines
by Matt Embrey
Greenaid seedbomb dispensers encourage regular people to casually become guerrilla gardeners, helping to add a little green to the concrete jungle as they are passing through.
Designers Danny and Kim started Greenaid as a way to engage local urban communities to incrementally beautify their environment. It's a "bottom up" initiative that involves taking old gumball machines, converting them to dispense seedballs that they sell or rent out to business, organizations or individuals that want to green the gray in their community.
Danny and Kim will develop a custom seed bombs from a mixture of clay, compost and seed and a strategic neighborhood intervention plan in response to the unique needs of the vendor's local ecology.
"You then simply place the machine at your local bar, business, school, park, or anywhere that you think it can have the most impact. We will then supply you with all the seedbombs you need to support the continued success of the initiative."
They admit that it's not a final solution to problems of urban environments but they saw it as a fun and interesting way to place emphasis on the actions of individuals and empower them to make small contributions to the beautification of their city.
"We recently built and placed several machines in the L.A. area containing native California wildflower seeds (such as White Yarrow, California Poppy, Lupine, and Blue Flax) and they've been received with enormous enthusiasm from local residents and businesses. We're enlisting your help to deploy a fleet of 12 more machines in underserved communities across L.A! We are in the process of determining the best locations for them, and as a backer you too can have a chance to help us determine where they'll go!"
Tractor Supply has a two pack of humane traps on sale for $25. One is a standard cat size and the other smaller and fits inside, works on small cats, kittens, rabbits, squirrels, etc. That’s a great price!! Stock up on what you need for feral TNR. Rikki’s needs a few too, so if you’re going past a Tractor Supply, please stop in and buy a set for us!! Thanks so much.
I Love YOU whole lots,
Vincent
PS You tell me what you want! Email me at Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org with instructions to change your subscription: additions, deletions or modifications! Subscriptions: Vincent’s VIPs - up to the second alerts about issues at Rikki’s Refuge for those who care and want to be intimately involved. Scheduled as needed. Good Morning Good News - a little something to get you going in the mornings, for those of you who want to keep smiling with us! Scheduled daily. Hairballs - so you know what’s coming up at Rikki’s! Scheduled weekly.
Rikki's Refuge, supported solely by private donations, houses over 1200 animals of 22 species. On line at http://bit.ly/Give-a-gift-to-Rikkis Checks, money orders, cash, items at Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960
Rikki's Refuge is owned and operated by Life Unlimited of Virginia, Inc., an IRS 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Virginia Corporation, tax-id 54-1911042. Combined Federal Campaigns #77674, Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign #3163, PetsMart Charities #1377. A financial statement is available upon written request from the State Office of Consumer Affairs.
Learn more www.RikkisRefuge.org and help spread the good word, tell everyone you know about Rikki’s Refuge
