On the Second Day of Christmas, look what came to Rikki’s,

On the Second Day of Christmas, look what came to Rikki’s,
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

two rabbits a mating, and a chukar in a cherry tree.

Vote for Jan

Vote for Jan
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

PLEASE VOTE NOW and VOTE EVERYDAY for Rikki's Refuge, Orange, Va on the Animal Rescue Site !!! It costs you NOTHING and Rikki's could win money to feed ME!! Vote every day thru 12/20 http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_shelterchallenge_from_home_sidetabs
I know you can make me a winner!!! LOVE, VINCENT D. CAT

PS Look at Jan chase Joey trying to get him to pose!!!!

On the First Day of Christmas, look what came to Rikki’s,

On the First Day of Christmas, look what came to Rikki’s,
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

At Rikki’s, we always do things in a BIG way. I order cat litter by the ton and food by the pallet. My humans clean up 400 pounds of poop every day. It takes 16 hard working human house a day to sanitize for my protection. “They” have 12 days of Christmas. WE have 28. And today is the First Day of Christmas at Rikki’s. Love Vincent


On the First Day of Christmas, look what came to Rikki’s, a chukar in a cherry tree.

Vote for Vincent

Vote for Vincent
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

PLEASE VOTE TODAY It’s free to you and it could win big bucks for Rikki’s Refuge, Orange VA www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.... Remember, the more Rikki’s wins the more animals we can save. Vote Vote Vote. Tell everybody you know! No matter where in the world you are you can vote for Rikki’s!! Contest ends 12/20, please vote everyday until then. They will be dividing up $100,000 to the winners.

www.RikkisRefuge.org

No Snoozing for Vincent

SO IT’S LIKE RAINING OUT THERE THIS MORNING
And Kerry says, “Wake up you lazy cat and get to work, we have 1200 animals to take care of. No more snoozing around here.” HUH? It’s like o’dark thirty and raining to boot. I call this hibernation time. Then she yanks my covers off. “To work you beast. If I have to work, YOU have to work! Your choice, get out there to check on everybody, start scooping boxes or go write a Hairballs.”

Ok Ok I’ll go do Hairballs. After I get a cup of catnip tea. Ahhhh Yaaawwwwwnnnnnn … Maybe just a little cat nap …. Ok Ok I’m just kidding, I’ll get over to the office and to work right away. “And, Mr. Vincent, why don’t YOU explain why there was no Hairballs last week.”

Ok, so I missed a week. It wasn’t MY fault. SHE was messing with the computer. SHE was a howling and a squawking about mud stuck between the keys. SHE was screaming about wipe your filthy paws, all three of them, before you set paw in my office! SHE was ranting and raving that if she ever found HER computer out in a cat house again…..

HER computer? Where does she get off with that kind of crap? HER? Lady, YOU invited me into your home knowing full well I’m a CAT and I live by MY rules, what’s yours is MINE. Gonna throw me out? Huh? “Don’t push your luck, Vincent! I’ll spend the day on the phone finding a sanctuary that takes handicapped sassy cats! Don’t you dare tempt me.”

MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS
Christine Greene & Christine Hawley independently posted the challenge: Every Day ‘til Thanksgiving, think of one thing you are thankful for and post it on your wall. The longer you do it, the harder it gets!

Do you think it will get harder? I think I can do it. Can you? My first post: Today I am thankful for Christine Greene who helps us to remember that we should be thankful.

It was a few minutes later that I saw my other friend Christine had made that request too.

My facebook is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000443110622 and you can sign up to be my friend and learn about my philosophy of the world. As I write this, I have 265 facebook friends. I really want 1,000 facebook friends but all the humans tell me I’m greedy. ME? Come on, I’m perfect, NOT greedy! And look, in 24 hours I got my first 100 friends and in less than two weeks 265 – so I can’t be all wrong now can I?

Help me to prove the humans wrong and show them EVERYBODY wants to be MY friend. Log onto facebook and be my friend.


POST WHAT YOU ARE THANKFUL FOR
Every morning. If we can all think of one nice happy thing we are thankful for, I think it will make our days much happier. I can’t wait to read what you’re thankful for!


BE A RIKKI’S REFUGE FAN
Rikki’s Refuge also has a serious facebook page where you can keep up to date about what’s going on. Just go here
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rikkis-Refuge/169651012390 to sign up as a fan.

My facebook is a lot more fun. Rikki’s is just kind of stuffy business stuff. Mine is cool. Sometimes even a dating site!! Check it out. My first attempt at computer dating! From Kat Knipp, “OH Vincent....I think I’m in LOVE! My first sleep over invite...you've been fixed, right?”

And if you’re interested in boring Kerry who thinks life is all work, work, work http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000425680511

Love, Vincent

Thank you Nanny T. Goat

Thank you Nanny T. Goat
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

for taking care of the office and the refuge for me and for working so hard to get me out of jail. Work party this weekend, come help shovel out my office! Bring BIG shovels!!!!

Thank you all you donors who made Nanny's work of saving me possible.

And Thank all of you who gave Nanny such a wonderful Birthday Party on Sunday. So many wonderful people came out to the Refuge Birthday Party and Open House. I hope you had as much fun visiting us as we had with your visit!!

Bring Kerry Home for My Birthday

Fill this jar with $20's
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

Fill this jar with $20s and Kerry can come home. We're only $576 short of getting Kerry home. Help us raise the money so Kerry can come home for Nanny's Birthday Open House on Sunday August 16, 2009 from noon till 4 pm. Open to the public, free vegan yummies cooked just for you, lots of fun, tours every half hours, lots of love for everybody, come and kiss a pig or goat or pat a cat or dog. 540-854-0870 x2 for details.

Please send your support. $1, $5 or what ever you can. http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php?purpose=Feed Paypal, Credit card or send a check to Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960.

Sincerely, Nanny T. Goat

Will Kerry survive incarceration in the dog run?

"I will never get used to dog etiquette",
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

Kerry will remain in jail pending investigation and possibly a trail. Bail has been set at the price of the over due feed bill $6,782.47. So far Nanny T. Goat (with help from YOU), has raised well over half the funds to get Kerry back to work. The animals all beg for your help .... Help bail her out before there's nothing left but a pelt.

The future of Rikki's Refuge is in your hands! Please send your support. $1, $5 or what ever you can. www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php?purpose=Feed Paypal, Credit card or send a check to Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960.

Kerry says prison is like a vacation !!!

Fun in the Sun
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

Kerry is quoted as saying, "I've always said I want to be a cat when I grow up! This ain't half bad! Sleeping in the sun! No phone! No computer! And, hey! They are scooping MY litterbox instead of the other way around. Eat, Sleep, Sun .. I could get into this ...."

Kerry will remain in jail pending investigation and possibly a trail. Bail has been set at the price of the over due feed bill $6,782.47. So far Nanny T. Goat (with help from opposable thumbed bipeds has raised $2,817.10, leaving only $3,965.37 to get Kerry back to work. The animals all beg for your help .... don't let her lay around relaxing and sleeping in jail - get her back to the drudges of cleaning up after us !!!!

The future of Rikki's Refuge is in your hands! Please send your support. $1, $5 or what ever you can. www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php?purpose=Feed Paypal, Credit card or send a check to Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960.

Read the detailed story at
http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/Rikkis/kerryjail.html

Kerry Charged on 3,206 Counts - Locked up Pending Investigation

"So you claim no cats are being fed?"
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

Accused by Vincent and charged by Officer Lena Stocks with 7 counts of uneven fur trimming, 4 counts for what a horrid haircut , 639 counts of no tuna for breakfast, 639 counts of no Fancy Feast for snack time, 639 counts of no tuna for dinner, 639 counts of no silk pillows at bed time, 639 counts of no midnight snacks of fresh mouse.

Kerry will remain in jail pending investigation and possibly a trail. Bail has been set at the price of the over due feed bill $6,782.47. So far Nanny T. Goat has raised $1,660.00, leaving only $5,122.47 to get Kerry back to work.

The animals all beg for your help .... don't let her lay around relaxing and sleeping in jail - get her back to the drudges of cleaning up after us !!!!

The future of Rikki's Refuge is in your hands! Please send your support. $1, $5 or what ever you can. www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php?purpose=Feed Paypal, Credit card or send a check to Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960.

Read the detailed story at

http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/Rikkis/kerryjail.html

Kerry of Rikki's Refuge Jailed

Kerry of Rikki's Refuge Jailed
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

for exceeding credit limit. She will be jailed in a local cell until a way overdue cat food bill of $6,782.47 is paid in full. The residents of Rikki's Refuge need your urgent assistance to get Kerry out of jail by raising the money to pay off this exorbitant bill. The creditors are threatening to auction off the refuge for resort property. The animals all beg for your help .... don't let us be homeless .. again.

The future of Rikki's Refuge is in your hands! Please send your support. $1, $5 or what ever you can. www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php?purpose=Feed Paypal, Credit card or send a check to Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960.

Read the detailed story at

http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/Rikkis/kerryjail.html

From our friends at Best Friends

Hi guys.

We wanted to send you the new link for the updated Best Friends web site:

http://network.bestfriends.org/golocal/virginia/default.aspx

and one of the featured articles there is one we wrote about your upcoming Birthday Bash.

We hope we can make it, but we have a conflict as of now.

By the way, we visited the Web of Life sanctuary in Chesapeake, and talked with the founder, Jackie Van Horn. She is doing some great work there. Here is a link to that article:

http://network.bestfriends.org/golocal/virginia/news.aspx?pID=11007

Congratulations again on your 11^th anniversary.

Rick & Sarah McDonald

News Writers

Best Friends Network Volunteers

http://network.bestfriends.org/golocal/virginia/default.aspx

(540) 597-8268

HERE'S SOME THINGS THE ANIMALS NEED

that we just couldn't afford to buy last week.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_registry_detail.html?ID=2352&ccd=IGR002

That's our Valley Vet registry where you can get some Birthday Presents for our critters. One word of caution. Kathy bought Nanny some diarrhea pills and when she paid with paypal it didn't over ride her address with ours. She'll drop off the pills as soon as they get in. If you live further away you - double check shipping address before you hit the final Order Confirm button. Make sure you're shipping to Rikki's Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733

Valley Vet is working on this glitch and hopes to have it fixed soon.

PS. thank you Kathy for NOT listening to Nanny. She beat me to the phone and was trying to convince Kathy she really wanted Oreo Cookies for the big Birthday Bash instead of diarrhea pills!! Naughty Nanny !!!!!


DON'T MISS OUR BIRTHDAY
Open House - August 16, Sunday from noon to 4 pm. Lots of fun and yummy cooking by Larry. For more information or to volunteer to help out contact Jan Chetnik jerseygirljan@verizon.net

Admission is two cans of cat food per person. If you can manage to bring more please do. Our 638 cat use 24 cases a DAY. That's why there's so much cleaning up in the morning to do !!!!!


THANK YOU MIKE AND PURINA
Mike Wood just drove up to Pennsylvania where Purina donated 3200 pounds of dry cat and dog food. That might sound like a lot for your household. But at Rikki's with all those hungry mouths it's only a 40 day supply of dry food. They still need their canned too because most of them are old or handicapped or fighting a chronic health issue.


MOVE THAT GRAVEL
Cindy Wright and Rene Luther along with Joe Callahan have been busy moving gravel from the pile to the dogs. And they've moved a LOT. They could still use your help in smoothing it out and tamping it down. It's one heck of a work out. Get a work out, do good, win karma points. Great project for scout group !!!

SPONSOR APPRECIATION DAY WAS WONDERFUL
The food was the best yet!! I didn't have to eat for the next 4 days.

I had so much fun meeting all of you. Thank you so very much for coming out. It really makes my day to get to meet and talk to you. For so many of you that's your one visit each year. But don't forget our next Open House - our 11th Birthday, August 16th from noon until 4 pm. Put it on your calendar right now!

It took all of these wonderful Volunteers to make it happen: Mary Walker, Jane Whitmore, Candy and Paul Erhard, Deloris Quick, Larry Ramsey, Clota Gerhardt, Lorraine Gentile, Laurie Karnay, Crystal and Dennis Bane, Mariza and Angela Soliman (Mariza baked and made salads also), Lou and Sean Laurie, BJ and Jarrett Wroten, Fred Friedman, Tom Hartshorne, Kerri Williams, Ron Herfurth, Melanie Hansford, Carrol Morgan, Bob Wallace, Kristina Anderson, Ken Lickliter, Katie and Grant Fincham, Kathy McLaurin, Katarina Galvin and her niece and nephew (Brie Castillo and Abe Herrera), Lloyd Dolan.

Rene Luther (sorbet and beautification), Alyce Smith made beautiful donation jars. Alex Hult - flyer creation. Dave Smalley, editor of "Weekender" - The Free Lance-Star - wrote a WONDERFUL editorial about Rikki's. Sarah and Rick McDonald - Virginia Best Friends website - wrote about the open house. We had such wonderful coverage from local and other newspapers, etc. The event had the MOST volunteers to date -- they all worked hard - we could not do these open houses without the wonderful volunteers.

Please call about becoming a volunteer!

At the salt mines

Meanwhile, here's what's going on with the gang. Anyone up for some awesome biceps workouts?

I just finished brushing the cat litter out of Golith the Goat's mouth. Lena called and hollered - help cat house 7, I need help with the goat. When I got there I discovered the goat's mouth was impacted full with clumping cat litter. Not good to eat. While she held him I flushed with a giant syringe and scrubbed with a tooth brush (oh please remind me to get to town and buy a tooth brush before tonight!).

As soon as he was litter free - he ran back to the litter box. So we leashed him and the other new buy Billy up and hauled them to Horsey Haven.

Joe Callahan has finished the fencing at horses. We are in need of additional T posts to strengthen the pannels. they'll need to be installed in between each one currently in. He'd only planned to do the pannels which makes it usable right now. The reinforcing is needed if we get something new that is pushy - but should get done. It requires a younger stronger person who can withstand the pounding with the post pounder.

We might be able to lure some of the sheep and goats into this pen and lock them up for tours so people can see them - though if many animals are going to be in there for long it's going to need shade. It's only got the current two horse run in.

So add a T-post pounding project to the list.

Kerry

THANKS KATHY

For those of us back here at the salt mines, Kathy very kindly sent an update on the Richmond Vegetarian Festival. Here's how it went for the OCAS gang:

We got one small mixed breed dog adopted. Hurray!

Wiley, a gentle senior hound up for adoption, didn't find his forever home at the event. Wiley is about 8 years old, neutered, all vet work done. He walks well on a leash and enjoys walking -- he walked around the park so much yesterday, that he was too tired to get out of the crate when we returned him to the OCAS around 8:00 pm last night. He is VERY gentle. Gets along with other dogs. We were walking among Pitbulls, Akitas, Chihuahuas, kids, people in wheelchairs -- and Wiley was fine around all of them.

Wiley is a happy wanderer, however, and needs to go to a home that won't let him out unattended. I have photos if anybody is interested. Or, go to the shelter and check him out.

SPONSOR APPRECIATION DAY PHOTO ALBUM

The weather was beautiful, the volunteers were wonderful and the guests enchanting. We all had a blast.

OUR CHEFS

OUR CHEFS
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

Larry and Clota cooked and cooked and cooked, and it was all delicious

ARTIST CARROL MORGAN

ARTIST CARROL MORGAN
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

raised money by sketching charcoal portraits.

DUKE'S PORTRAIT

DUKE'S PORTRAIT
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge

including this lovely one of our very own Duke Thomas Peabody. I wonder how he managed to get a portrait and Vincent didn't?