Thank you Dennis Bane and
Spotsylvania County REACH kids for picking up Vincent’s Birthday Present
yesterday --- a WHOLE pallet of canned
cat food .... and for delivering it to Rikki’s .... and for stacking it in the
pantry. I might not be around much for
the next few days .... lots to eat
....NUMS !!!!
And thank you to the two
folks, serving 50 hours of community service, who picked Rikki’s Refuge to do
their time at and who came out yesterday to help us with the chores. They washed litter boxes and food
totes. And that’s not a small job. It didn’t take 50 hours. But they’ll be back !!
Thank you to Orange County’s
elementary differently abled class who came out to volunteer. They worked on organizing and cleaning up
the cat food storage pantry and they got some produce ready and fed it to the
animals.
Ohhhh and the ickiest chore
of all was mucking out the layers and layers of straw that had been winter
bedding. Oh ick ... the total down pouring of rain washed it
into huge piles. And oh my, does it
stink !!!! It’s got to be pitched
forked up, loaded in the truck and hauled to the compost pile. They made a big dent in the work .... but
there is so much more to do !!!! The
heavy rains really added a lot more work for the hoomans. Anybody want to seriously muck some
stinking stuff ... just let me know Mail@RikkisRefuge.org
Spring is
here now
And with spring we should
expect rain .... but oh my gosh ... did we get rain the other day. Everything ... absolutely EVERYTHING
flooded. We were just getting ready to
open for tours and events since all the mud had dried up from all the winter
rain and snow .... And now the spring
has us under water, washed away and under mud.
All the cat house yard
furniture was washed down to the lowest corners, all dirty and muddy now. Straw was washed from barns, clogged up
fences and made huge pools. I think half
the driveway washed away.
So much clean up and fix up
now ..... We’re hoping to open by mid
May but it will depend on how fast them hoomans can clean up. This is hard, heavy, dirty clean up
work. You want to help us out? Just let me know mail@RikkisRefuge.org
Today’s
Happenings
We ran out of paper towels yesterday
and mom had to go buy 36 rolls. That’ll
last a couple days. Please bring paper
towels to Donation Drop off - noon - 2 at the Education Center. People say why not use rags? Cuz we’re cleaning up vile and nasty stuff
and trying to disinfect all the rags would be quite a chores .... and lots and
lots more loads of laundry and we already can hardly keep up with washing the
beds and linens.
Speaking of laundry ... Dollar General has a great deal this weekend
only. The laundry detergent that is the
best deal of all at only $5 for a big jug is on sale for ONLY $3.50 .... AND I’ve got two coupons to buy $25 and get
$5 off .... so that makes it a REAL bargain.
I just need to get $40 together so I can buy it this weekend !!!! www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
I need volunteers to be at
the Education Center from noon - 2 on Saturdays to be Donation Drop off
Docents. It’s easy. You can play with cats while waiting for
folks to show up, and then just show them where to put their donations. mail@RikkisRefuge.org
It’s festival and event
season. If you’d like to volunteer to
hooman our booth or table at wine festivals, craft fairs, animals events,
vegetarian festivals, adoption events, and so on .... please let us know. mail@RikkisRefuge.org
Looking
for a job serving animals?
Today, Saturday, at the
Education Center at noon, we’ll be interviewing for full time employment at
Rikki’s. You need to be able to life
40-50 pounds, run fast to catch goats and sheep and feral cats, be willing to
learn to medicate all the animals, large and small, to do general maintenance
and to do construction. Since so many
people give up after a few days or weeks cuz of the hard core physical work,
we’ll be running tests so you can see what it’s really like. We’ll have sacks of grain, salt blocks,
boxes of cat litter, on hand for every one to pick up and walk around with. Then you’ll get to run across a field and
back. It’s not a speed contest, but
more endurance. It can take 3-4 hours
of running back and forth to catch every body .... of one species ... or in one
area .... each month for wormings and de-fleaing. Then we’ll do the written application and talk about how your
skills match up to what we’re doing. If
it sounds like a win win for you and Rikki’s, you’ll volunteer a full day so
you can see what it’s really like. If
we’re both still happy at the end of the day .... Doug, our staff manager, will most likely make you a job
offer. And then you can clean my litter
box every day !!!!!
In
Illinois
Volunteers
... we NEED you !!!
Blue Dog came home yesterday
!!! That’s our nice blue pick up truck
.... it’d gone in for state inspection and fix up time. The door handle on the driver’s side was
busted and the handle for the little triangle vet window had rusted off
---- fixing that stuff was really
expensive !! YIKES ..... I need volunteer mechanics. Both hard core who can do serious stuff like
brakes, and fix doors like this and replace fuel pumps and such --- I’ve got
several vehicles we could use on the farm if we could get somebody to fix them.
And I need light duty handy
hooman type vehicle folks --- who can
check out vehicles before inspection and replace bulbs ... who’ll keep fluids
topped off .... do oil changes ...
detail vehicles that get so muddy and dusty.
I need a volunteer to tow a
couple vehicles to Rikki’s. Pick up
trucks that don’t need that much work and then we’ll be able to use them on the
farm. One is in Orange, the other in
Culpeper. Do you have a tow truck or a
tow dolly?
I need a volunteer who’ll
finish getting the wallpaper off in the half bath at the Education Center
.... and then paint it nice and
pretty. It’s really ugly and a mess with
the wallpaper mostly stripped off, but never finished.
Also volunteers who can do
fence repair at the Education Center so we can get ready to have animals
there. Replace rotten boards, paint and
so on.
I need a volunteer who’s
into drugs ...... nooooo not THAT kind .... somebody who wants to help and measure out
individual doses of worming meds, supplements and things like that. It all comes in bulk and needs to be very
carefully measured and put in oral syringes or capsules.
We still have most of the
3,000 feet of fencing that’s 15 miles west of Rikki’s and that was donated for
the sheep and still needs to be taken down and brought to Rikki’s. I really need volunteers NOW to pull out the
staples and roll up the fencing and bring it to Rikki’s. If you don’t have a vehicle you can
transport it in .... please pull the
staples and get it ready and someone else will pick up. HELP ...
this is a critical project.
Volunteer produce haulers
are needed to pick up nums at stores in Fredericksburg and bring it out to
Rikki’s. This is done in the
morning. You’ll need a truck or van or
big suv to do this .. or trailer.
Mooooove over Hay -- we’ve got grass growing now !!!!
I bet you do have a lawn
mower or weed whacker (gas powered, electric ones don’t work out here, too far
from sources of electricity) ! Would
you bring them out and help mow and trim things up? We need hoomans doing it in places the cows and sheep aren’t
allowed to go !!
We need volunteers to help
at Re-Tail, our shop in Fredericksburg.
Take donations, sort things out, price, put on the display floor.
Who wants to build a new cow
/ goat / sheep barn? We also need some
run-ins built.
Oh I know what else we need
... really bad .... a volunteer to build an area that Timmy and I can go out to
play in .... right next to the office,
so we can go and come as we please thru a kitty door !!!
Contact me ASAP if you can
help with any of these chores: mail@RikkisRefuge.org
Look who
got adopted !
Are you
good at teaching?
We want to get some new
programs going at the Education Center.
Anything that teaches kindness, tolerance, and/or helps animals or
kids. Vegan cooking. Animal care. Spirituality. Book
groups. Reiki. Meditation.
Yoga. Build a dog house or bird
feeder. I need volunteer teachers now
!
Interested in running or
helping with a kids reading program?
Read with the animals. We need
5-6 books for different age ranges as a summer reading list. Then have special times for reading or
reporting on your reading at the Education Center and at Re-Tail, our shop in
Fredericksburg.
Email me if you’d like to
help out: mail@RikkisRefuge.org
It was a
beautiful warm sunny day yesterday
..... so nice ....
Everybody was out and enjoying the lovely weather.
Meeka peeks out early in the morning
Spring has those birds up to
crazy antics !!!! Smoochie smoochie
... they just won’t stop .... peacocks, ducks, geese, chickens ..... Geezzzz guys ... let up, will ya? Thank goodness, everybody else has been to
the speuter clinic!!
Please
VOTE today and EVERYDAY!!
The Shelter Challenge is a
wonderful opportunity to help the animals with only a few clicks !!!! Totally FREE and EASY and QUICK .... turn your clicks into meds to prevent ticks
!!!!
Please vote today and every
day thru June 29 !!! Just go to this
link http://www.shelterchallenge.com/web/charityusa/nomineehome?userId=53331&nomineeId=17448
and
enter Rikkis Refuge (no ‘ ... see ??)
in VA in the USA and that’s it !! Thank you
NUMS for
YOU
you share with me, and I’ll share with you
try this wonderful vegan recipe today
WOW Check
out what’s coming Tuesday !!!
If you can, please tune in Tuesday and donate $25 or
more thru this program to help us win some of the prizes !!!!
THANK YOU
FOR HELPING ME TO
SAVE SO
MANY LIVES
... with your support we’re
able to help so many into their new furrever happy homes .... and to give that life long home to those not
quite so fortunate ... Thank you for
your support
Without YOU none of us would
be looking forward to Spring!!
Love,
Opie
Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RikkisRefuge\
Rikki’s Web Site: www.rikkisrefuge.org
Help the Animals: http://rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php
