Monday, December 23, 2019

Christmas Flyer 2019




Meet PIPEN (PIP for short). This handsome guy is a mini Sheltie and is about 12 years old.  He is also deaf and partially blind.  He came to us from a sad situation but seems very happy with his new friends and caregivers at Rikki’s Refuge.  He spends his time in the Med Room with our staff and he especially loves men, as his former owner was an elderly single man. PIP loves to wear sweaters and the staff has already bought him an adorable wardrobe.

THUMBELINA and ASHLEY, two formerly feral cats, have formed a close bond at Rikki’s Refuge.  While they don’t like to be held or cuddled, they love to be admired and they enjoy posing for photos (seriously!).  So of course we oblige them! 


Who do YOU want to help today?  Would you like to give a special gift to one of our animals you’ve read about today?  Make a donation to give someone new a chance for life at Rikki’s?  How would YOU like your funds to be spent?  Just tell us !!  DONATE ON-LINE at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate



FRANK, one of our amazing peacocks, surveys his kingdom at Rikki’s Refuge. He likes to tell our visitors “Always be yourself ~ unless you can be a peacock ~ then be a peacock.”

This handsome boy is CAMELOT (do you love his mustache?) and he has captured the heart of everyone at Rikki’s Refuge.  He came to us with leg issues, but for now they are just fine - still no surgery required - and he is a lovebug. Oh, and he loves for his favorite human Tina to hold him and carry him around like a baby (although he gets around by himself just fine too!)! He might be a bit spoiled!
                                                                The happiest part of the day for BUZZ and WANDA
is in the morning when their caregiver arrives. 
It’s a joyful time for them! Our caregiver Lauren
reports that it’s the best part of her day as well!!

Is your online shopping benefiting Rikki’s Refuge??
You shop online. Rikki’s Refuge gets a small donation.

Have you ever wanted to hug a cow up close and personal? Have you ever wanted to feed an emu?  Have you ever wanted to just sit and hang out with a goat? We have some real characters here at Rikki’s Refuge and they are all ready to meet you!!  Get up close and personal with our amazing animal residents and schedule a tour with us! You must have reservations so be sure to email us for more information! We look forward to seeing you!!
RSVP by emailing  Tours@RikkisRefuge.org


LUCY and PRINCE are two of our oldest residents. 
They are each in their thirties now but are doing great!
They came to Rikki’s Refuge from two different situations,
but have bonded completely and are never far from each other. 
They love visitors and treats, but mostly they just love each other.
CHARLIE, one of our farm pigs,
enjoys nothing better than a good
mud spa!  Those ears!!
 
This guy is BULLY, a rambunctious, playful Belted Galloway steer.
Bully came from a New York petting zoo dispersal rescue.
He actually escaped the auction pen and ran amok in New York
for a week or so! Luckily he was spared and found his way to a
nice farm in Virginia where he lived for a few years....
and now he calls Rikki’s Refuge home!

Did you know that EVERY meal, for EVERY
animal, EVERY SINGLE DAY here at Rikki’s
Refuge, is provided by donations from YOU,
our caring, generous, and AMAZING supporters!
THANK YOU !    THANK YOU !!    THANK YOU !!!


Happiness is being a cat at Rikki’s Refuge!!
 
Kerry’s Korner

Thank YOU for spending another year with us at Rikki’s Refuge. Thank YOU for being kind hearted, caring and doing something to make a difference on our planet. It’s taken every one of you to keep the dream of Rikki’s Refuge living on. What a wonderful planet we’d have if everyone was like YOU !!! 

Your generous donations throughout the year of money and supplies give the animals food and medicine, medical care and safe housing. The gift of your time gives them love and hope; clean homes and care. Together we have created a wonderful safe haven of happiness and joy, filled with love; the kind of world we all want to live in.

We still have our sad times. Giving our animals a home for life, means someday, the end of their time on earth comes. This year we said goodbye to life long resident Petunia pig, our first farm pig, who came to us as an 8 pound little baby, and grew into the beautiful pink 800 pound ruler of Piggy Paradise over the next couple years. Her longevity amazed her doc, who’d cut her toenail, ok hooves, every six months as she got older. 

Jessie goat came with his brother Joey when his beloved humans reached an age they could no longer care for them. People told them to just put them down, they were so old, they likely wouldn’t live out the year anyway. Their people who were going to a home where they could live out their natural lives, felt Jessie and Joey deserved the same.  And so they brought the goats to Rikki’s. And they lived another 9 and 10 happy years here. They slowed down, they spent more time sleeping in the sun, they stole snacks from visitors. Joey left more than a year before Jessie and we weren’t sure Jessie would survive the heartbreak. Yet after a few months of extra love and special treats, he rallied and had another happy year being the first in line to search visitor’s pockets for treats!

Danny cow had started life as a bottle fed-pet-a zoo baby, grew too big and was headed off to the hamburger factory when a loving family bought him as a pet. Downsizing after years on a farm, the family found Rikki’s for Danny’s retirement years. Though Danny was with us only a couple years before his heart gave out, he was happy and loved.  His friendliness, gigantic size and glorious horns made him an icon and the one everybody wanted selfies with on tours !!

The natural cycle of life means we can welcome new residents desperately in need of safe haven.  A family of 9 elderly angora goats came from an elderly couple much like the ones who loved Jessie and Joey enough to let them have so many wonderful retirement years.  Though Elvis and Lizzie, at 19 years old, recently passed away, we hope Mozart, May, Edie, Miley, Gabby, Fiona, and Maggie have many more happy years here at Rikki’s.

Eddie the elderly mini horse had lost all his barnyard friends to age. It wasn’t the right time for his family to get more animals, but wanting Eddie to have friends for his retirement years, they brought him to Rikki’s. This tiny little guy bullied the big horses, riled the goats into head butting arguments, chased the sheep, would Eddie ever find a friend at Rikki’s?

Then Lucky the black angus cow came and took one look at the big cows and said Mooooo get me outta here! Lucky was hand raised by a precious young lady as a project to be sold.  As she learned the fate of cows, she did not want that for Lucky. Her grandmother was the high bidder, found Rikki’s Refuge, and now brings the young lady to visit Lucky.  Who has   become Eddie’s absolute best friend and follower, despite being many times Eddie’s size! 

Charlie pig, being auctioned off for BBQ, was bought by a compassionate soul who found Rikki’s. Joey the sheep, who had no idea what a sheep was, came and is totally bonded to Doug, the human sanctuary manager, and follows him every where. Cow Sully was raised from a baby by someone who loved him dearly. She had to move and found Sully a “wonderful” home. But sometimes wonderful isn’t. Sully ended up in a slaughterhouse lot, was spotted as friendly by a rescuer who bailed him out, and ended up at Rikki’s. He was named Corgi here and has a distinct face, which his original mom recognized when she saw him on facebook. By then she’d found out he was no longer in the “wonderful” home. After months of searching and worry, she was once again happy Sully has a life long home and lots of cow friends. Chicks still come every year from school hatching projects to live out happy chicken lives. Sad, abandoned, elderly dogs, like Atticus, Laden and Pip, so missing the humans they loved and were abandoned by, come to Rikki’s to find love and happiness and a place in the sun for the rest of their days. Special needs cats like Gigi, Mookie, Mystique and Pepper make frightening trips from far away states, even other countries, to find the help, therapy, medical care, peace and happiness they’ll have forever at Rikki’s. 

With YOU and your never ending support, the cycle of life will go on forever with generations of animals that come to us sad, abandoned, alone, hurt and sick to be transformed into healthy, loved, and oh so happy to be alive animals.

Please help us make a difference to the Petunias, Jessies, Joeys, Dannys, Elvises, Lizzies, Mozarts, Mays, Edies, Mileys, Gabbys, Fionas, Maggies, Eddies, Luckys, Charlies, Sullys, Atticuses, Ladens Pips, Gigis, Mookies, Mystiques and Peppers of the world, with your generous end of year donations. 

We COUNT on YOU for their very survival.

Love to you and yours,

Kerry  and all the ones YOU saved

YOUR GENEROUS DONATION GIVES
PEACE, LOVE AND LIFE - THE MOST WONDERFUL GIFT OF ALL

 





In late August, we welcomed a small potbelly pig to the Rikki’s Refuge family. To our complete surprise, she gave birth to these five adorable little piglets on September 1.

LITTLE MAMA is doing great with motherhood and the piglets,  each one completely different in appearance and personality, are healthy and getting bigger and stronger every day, although they don’t want to be far from their mama! 

 This guy ~ he quacks us up!!


MILO and his little buddies ~friends come in all shapes and sizes at Rikki’s Refuge!!

Milo joined us after someone rescued him from a petting zoo as a sick and injured baby. Soon they realized it wasn’t much of a life for him to live all alone in a small fenced area. So he came to Rikki’s Refuge where he gets to eat leaves and have lots of friends. At Rikki’s Refuge we believe nobody should have to live alone as one of a kind.

YES, you’ve seen this photo floating around the web ..usually as a “cat lady organizer” or the like.. the picture was taken right here in the 9th Life Retirement, Assisted Living and Psychiatric Center at Rikki’s Refuge Animal Sanctuary ... it’s early one morning, about 4am, and our founder Kerry snuck in and got the photo before turning on the lights. She’d worked on getting this shot for over a year, sneaking and trying to catch everybody before they woke up and started begging for breakfast and jumping down to greet her .... finally one day ... SUCCESS!! And it’s now the most famous photo of Rikki’s Refuge on the planet!!


“Why does Rikki’s Refuge have so many black cats?”
To save their lives!! Did you know that many shelters don’t even try to adopt black cats out? So much superstition about them still abounds. It’s really silly. Black cats are just like the rest of us. But the little black kitten in a litter will often never get
chosen. We think it’s really important to spread the good word about black cats!
SUNDAY, the goat, was found abandoned in the woods behind our Re-Tail Thrift Store. She was scared and skittish. Our store staff set up a feeding station (finding out that she prefers grapes over EVERYTHING). They put grapes out for her daily, and wildlife cameras in order to establish her schedule. Soon, she began to wander to a neighboring business to visit her “friends” (she was seeing her reflection in their windows). However, this was causing a distraction to drivers along the very busy road and was not safe for Sunday. Animal control was called many times, but they were never able to capture her. Since she was looking for a friend, Re-Tail staff put a mirror in the woods so that she could see herself (thinking it was a friend) and she loved it! So, the experienced staff out at Rikki’s Refuge was called in to help and Sunday was caught safely and brought to Rikki’s where she has made new friends, both animal and human and will be able to live out her life safely and loved.  We LOVE happy endings!!

Meet LARS and NELS.  Our turkeys continue to be  game-changers for so many who visit us at Rikki’s Refuge. Seeing their gentleness, their playfulness, and their amazingly friendly and funny social behavior ~ it catches many of us off guard. And then we wonder how we ever thought otherwise. Two great reasons pictured here to consider adopting a plant-based lifestyle.

Are you on Facebook?? Did you know you can give to the animals of Rikki’s Refuge Animal Sanctuary for free? All you need to do is create your own Facebook Fundraiser! It’s fun, it’s easy to do, it gets your friends and family involved in a cause that’s important to you, and it makes a big
difference to the animals! And if you set one up, let us know and we can share it on our social media pages!

Learn how to set up your own fundraiser in just two minutes here: www.facebook.com/fundraisers

You can find us listed under
“LIFE UNLIMITED OF VIRGINIA, INC”

And hey, while you are on Facebook, be sure you have liked our Facebook pages:


Each “like” and “share” of our Facebook posts as well as “likes” and “follows” of our page help us receive more exposure. More exposure can result in new supporters and allows us to continue to say YES to animals in need.  THANK YOU!!


We are so grateful to you for all you do to create a kinder and safer world for the animals! 

Everyone should have a place to feel safe and loved. You have helped us create that at Rikki’s Refuge!

This is DOLLY. She was a scared little girl that lived in a cage for five years. Now that she is at Rikki’s Refuge she is slowly starting to understand how awesome it is to have cat friends and that humans are not so scary. She is loved.

$7 will care for one cat for a week - Will you sponsor Dolly?

PRESTON is the very proud CCO of Rikki’s Refuge ~ that is our Chief Cheerfulness Officer!  He takes his job very seriously! 



At Rikki’s Refuge, the snuggle is real!
                                                                         BURT, a muscovy duck, is a loner and prefers
to be alone, but he has one regular volunteer
who he loves to “talk” with and share treats with.

THANK YOU to everyone that picked and hauled pumpkins to Rikki’s Refuge this year!! Lots of pumpkins makes for very happy animals!