March 12, 2021 Friday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

I’m sorry I’m behind on getting the news of Rikki’s Refuge out to you every day. About a week behind at this point. Some days end up being longer than others. There are so many things to do to take care of the animals every day, things at the refuge, things at the store, things with suppliers, supporters, donors and more !!! Many things keep me on the road for long hours. Sometimes by the time I finish for the day, it’s way late and I’m so tired, I just go to sleep for a few hours before getting up again. I always promise I’ll get up an extra hour early to get that newsletter done. But sometimes I just can’t wake up after two hours !!! Or I get up and there’s more Its-Just-Got-To-Be-Done things waiting. I know you love reading about what happened yesterday. I’m working on catching up!!! IF there are no unexpected disasters today, I’ll get three days of What’s Happen at Rikki’s out to you !!! But if somebody calls and says I’ve got 1,000 pounds of cat food and I’m only two hours away, and it has to be out of our store before we close today …. well …. I’m on my way !!!!

Trying to decide if it will rain or sun today

Let’s head out to the woods and see what we caught on the trailcam over night !
Rocky is the only one to cross the creek at our spot last night.

Marbles is winking at YOU !!! Good Morning !!! Got nums today ?

Yes sweetie, every day, nums for you and all your friends !!!

Mr Peacock showed off and displayed for attention

But the attention Toby and Marbles gave him wasn’t exactly what he had in mind !!

The Rainbow over the Bridge.

Getting faded and needing YOU to come out and help us keep up with painting !!!

Panda hops in the bucket of the tractor to head to pigs to give them breakfast.

Ohh please let it rain today

I so miss my mud

The skies are darkening

Ohhh please let the rain come and make mud … please !!!
As soon as the rain starts the pigs run to the mud hole !!!

The geese are thrilled to see water again !!!

Panda says, “I guess I’ll go inside and wash dishes.”

By 3 pm the rain has stopped and the clouds have blown away and it’s a beautiful day !

It’s truly spring !! Beautiful things are spring up ever where !

Spring peepers start singing as the sun goes down, and keep it up all night till the sun begins to rise.

Not the “friends” we’re happy to see again this year. Every year the ticks seem to get more populous. The guineas love to eat them. Such a blessing to have them !!

The ferals back as far away from the hoomans coming to clean up.

Grass is coming up every where, fast and beautiful !!! Soon we’ll be mowing for hours every day !! If only everything was fenced in appropriate sections where the sheep could just move from one area to the next to do all the mowing !!!

5 pm and it’s still sunny and warm and beautiful !! Yup, we love the spring !!

Thank YOU for giving us chance to LIVE at Rikki’s Refuge.

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

YOU have saved our lives !!

March 11, 2021 Thursday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

Foggy foggy morn

Lazy lazy day

Clarence has been seeing bear tracks down by the beaver pond, so he put up a trailcam. He caught this gal last night, but nobody else.

Please bring back our mud ….

Hey … water’s over here !!! Come on to our picnic !!!

Look at ME Look at ME Look at ME

Fine … don’t pay me any attention

I’ll go away ….

I’m gonna take a nap.

Thank YOU for giving us chance to LIVE at Rikki’s Refuge.

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

YOU have saved our lives !!

March 10, 2021 Wednesday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

How are YOU today? We are having a lovely spring. I hope YOU are too, where ever in the world you are.

This is a Woolly Caterpillar.

We see a lot of them in the fall. We’re told that how long their “fur” is and how much black they have is an indication of how cold the winter will be. I can’t say I’ve studied it enough over the years to know if it’s right or not.

I do know I’ve never noticed them in the spring before. But they’re all over this year. So I googled it. They hibernate over the winter and then come out for a few days before spinning a cocoon to sleep in for month or so. When they wake up, they’re Isabella Tiger Moths. I always thought they’d cocooned over winter. But they wake up and eat for a few days to store up energy for their transformation.

I do wonder if they have a clue what’s going to happen? Do they know they’ll be different when they wake up? And when they do, do they have a memory of being a caterpillar? Can YOU imagine going to sleep one night, and forgetting to set your alarm, and waking up a month later to be a totally different creature? The world would suddenly be so different. Just imagine that !

I think that’s what the turkeys are talking about this morning too.

The birds are probably our most active animals. They love to strut all around. March to their own drummers. They’re always on the move. Well not always! They do stop and rest at times. Especially on hot days, they’ll rest in the shade in the middle of the day. But they never miss investigating every inch of their territory at least once every day. They’d be so miserable is held captive in small areas.

Pigs, on the other hand, are probably our most sedentary creatures. Moving only for food, or to a sunny sleeping spot, or a nice muddy hole, or …..

Contemplating the plight of woolly caterpillars.

Getting a nice cool drink.

Time for musical sleeping spots …

Do book early for your Spa Day appointment at Piggy Paradise this summer !!!!
We offer full body mud baths.

And good Virginia red clay facials !

AND you get all the popcorn you can eat while during your Spa Day appointment. We’ll try to send you out looking as beautiful as our pigs !!!

Some of our dogs have earned the privilege of being Free Rangers. To earn that status, you must promise not to run off the property, and to never hurt another resident. This is the rule no matter your species. When you learn to volunteer here, we’ll let you have Free Range when you’ve learned all about how to be safe around everyone, and how to keep them safe around you !!!

Very few of our dogs will promise to obey the rules. Well that’s not exactly true. Many promise, but few keep that promise. It’s just so hard for most dogs to see cats and ducks and geese and to refrain from the chase, or to resist herding the goats or sheep, or worse, trying taste somebody !

Did you know the pictures you see each day were taken that day !!! The folks working at Rikki’s snap pictures as they have time and see something they want to capture. You’ll see a lot of favorites over and over. And you’ll see different areas of the Refuge each day depending on who got the best pictures that day !!! But what you see, is always what’s happening that very day !!

I know a lot seems same ol same ol each and every day. And it is !!! Our residents don’t often change. Every year a few reach the end of their natural life span, and then a few more come to live with us. But the population stays pretty stable. Except for the times we’ve been able to build new areas. But that takes extra funds, and the volunteer power to build.

The farm critters are certainly the largest group of eaters on the Refuge. Especially if we include the birds in that. This truck of sweet feed, will only last a few days. They’ll also need a second truck of cracked corn to go round.





It seriously takes a village to feed all the animals at Rikki’s Refuge !!

If you can help, you can call and order for Rikki’s Refuge directly from:
Deep Roots Home and Garden Center
28284 Constitution Hwy, Rhoadesville, VA 22542
540-854-5093
Order Wrangler All Stock (sweet feed) and/or Cracked Corn, each $11.59 per bag
Just tell them it’s for Rikki’s Refuge.
They’ll contact us to come and get it !!!
Every bag is a HUGE help !!!
Their hours are Tuesday – Friday 9 am to 5 pm, Saturday 9 am to 3 pm, closed Sunday and Monday.

And you know who else eats – and poops – us out of house and home on a very regular basis !!

This is a pallet of litter coming in.
Keeping our kitties in fresh litter takes a pallet, 2,000 pounds, of wood pellets.
We use 50 bags a week. Really, not that bad for over 500 cats !!!
If you can help, you can call and order for Rikki’s Refuge directly from:
Deep Roots Home and Garden Center
28284 Constitution Hwy, Rhoadesville, VA 22542
540-854-5093
Order Hardwood Heat Pellet Fuel (cheapest when they have it in) or Pelletized Horse Bedding (a few cents more per bag) for ~$5.99 (market price fluctuates about 50¢ a bag week to week
Just tell them it’s for Rikki’s Refuge.
They’ll contact us to come and get it !!!
Their hours are Tuesday – Friday 9 am to 5 pm, Saturday 9 am to 3 pm, closed Sunday and Monday.

Riley says not only will she poop on the floor, but she’ll bite you if her litterbox is not immaculately clean !!!

Go on Panda … you can do it ….

What an amazing jumper !!

Thank YOU for giving us chance to LIVE at Rikki’s Refuge.

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

YOU have saved our lives !!

March 09, 2021 Tuesday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

Today’s photo newsletter is dedicated to Paddy Cat and his daddy Ron Herfurth.

Long, long ago, in September of 2004, I got a phone call from someone who’d taken in a cat and just found out he was FIV positive. She’d been told she had to euthanize him right away. He was dangerous, he’d spread the disease, just being in her house he’d infect her other cats. And, anyway, with FIV he’d lead a short and very miserable live. Constantly sick till he died.

But he was perfectly healthy, except for that little blue dot on a test. And she could not bear to kill him. I told her, yes, we housed FIV positive kitties, and in our experience, they were pretty healthy and most of the evidence these days was saying as long as they’re neutered (so they’re not fighting with that deep biting or their rival males, and females of their affections) they’re ok to live with negative cats and there would be no transmission. She wanted to keep him, but feared causing injury to her other cats, or watching Paddy Cat die a long and horrible slow death. This is what so many vets were saying back then, and what most of the literature said. It was only the sanctuaries who didn’t kill them and housed them for life who were discovering their lives were 16, 18, 20 years and had no more illness than negative cats. It’d still be years before the rest of the world caught up with what we already knew.

So Paddy Cat came to Rikki’s. He moved into Cat House #4, where most of our FIV positive kitties lived. Paddy Cat was longhaired and very loving. Our wonderful volunteer Ron Herfurth, who a few years earlier had come on a tour at Rikki’s, returned the next weekend to adopt Cassie, a lovely long hair calico, and then returned the next weekend to volunteer, and has returned most weekend and holidays ever since, met Paddy Cat. Ron loves long hair kitties.

Soon Paddy Cat was following Ron around when he’d work in Cat House #4. Ron had a special place in his heart for FIV kitties too. They were getting such a bad rap at the time. Turned into shelters and usually killed just for a little blue dot.

One day Paddy Cat decided to go home with Ron. That was April 9, 2005. Paddy Cat and Ron and the rest of their feline family

If you’ve seen our pretty theme colors, Ron’s the man responsible. He’s got a great eye for mixing and matching colors. Like he did here at the Life Center.

Ron paints and fixes up, and builds, and landscapes. He’s planted hundreds of fruit trees for the animals all over the Refuge!!

The wishing well in the Center Garden at the Life Center came to us in pretty bad shape.

And see what Ron did !!!

Ron is also the one responsible for most of our pretty signs !!!

And Ron is responsible for having given Paddy Cat a wonderful home for almost 16 years !!! AND TODAY IS PADDY CAT’s 21st BIRTHDAY !!!!! He’s been a happy healthy boy all these years.

And to think, they wanted to kill him when he was only five years old, cus everybody knew if he had FIV he couldn’t lead a happy healthy life and would be better off dead.

Most of our FIV kitties live until close to 20. Our longest lived kitties, those making it over 20, have mostly been positive for FIV. And not a single one of them ever had any health issues we don’t see in the general negative population. Yes, they often come in ragged and torn up. Cus they’re trapped on the streets after a bad fight with another tom and have infected injuries, and they often need a dental when they come in, as do most of the kitties who’ve been living on the streets eating garbage to survive. But once they’ve been fixed up, they’re just as healthy as can be.

Next time YOU adopt, think about welcoming an FIV positive kitty into your home. Though the myths about them have tamed down, there are still people afraid to give them homes, so they end up in shelters on death row far more proportionately then non FIV kitties. Give one a chance to prove how wonderful they can be !!

We have another beautiful day upon us !!!! We’re really enjoying this wonderful warm dry spring weather !!!

Guarding the last cases from the pallet we got

Riley says, oh yeah, you wanna fight over that food?

We’re on YOUR side Riley !!

Stay out of here, we’ve for our case and we’re not sharing.

Who’s gonna share with me?

Will there be anything left of us today?


It’s cool guys, I grabbed a case for us.

Yeahhhh, chow time !!!

Contented cats …. after their all you can eat breakfast buffet



Some stay out of reach unless you’re offering something to eat !!

Mmmmmm stretch it out

Some bellies are fun to scratch, others hurt like heck when you

work at Rikki’s, you learn which bellies are safe to scratch and which aren’t !!!
Are YOU talking about me?

Yup, you learn mighty quick. Some bellies are better left alone !!


All these friggin cats, why do people always want to take pictures of cats?

Cats always like to camouflage in or on colors that match their fur.



The peacock is really marvelous construction !! Each different type of feather has a job. Some hold up the long colorful feathers, others are for rustling.

And everyone lives happily ever after at Rikki’s

With YOUR help we can save and provide life long homes to well over 1,000 animals each & every day !!!!

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

Thank YOU for making it all possible.

March 08, 2021 Monday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

What a beautiful world !!!

Mr Peacock is on the fence about who to show off to today !

Scrubbing and filling watering stations

Our friends can’t wait to get in the clean water and hop in before it’s full

Isabella appreciates a good long drink of clean water. We’re still getting some ice forming overnight, despite the wonderfully warm days.

Look at this amazing thick long ruff !!! As the weather warms it will start to shed out, by summer you’ll hardly know he’s a long hair kitty in the winter !!!

I love you fresh straw

Myyyy post !!!! Now I will spray you !!!!

The reason many of our kitties are considered unadoptable. We’re willing to create a safe environment for them, one that we clean up everyday. But most households won’t put up with that, and pretty soon, spraying kitty is booted out. Here, they’re welcome forever !

And some are positive for the leukemia virus.

And some help with the pooper scooping

Cats have the most beautiful eyes

Some just can’t stop showing off

Sheep love fresh grass. It’s much tastier than hay. It’s like having fresh off the vine strawberries instead of frozen ones. As fast as it will try to come back in for the spring, the sheep will eat it down.

And everyone lives happily ever after at Rikki’s

With YOUR help we can save and provide life long homes to well over 1,000 animals each & every day !!!!
www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

Thank YOU for making it all possible.

March 07, 2021 Sunday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

Good Morning !!!! I just wanted to make sure YOU knew how much you mean to us.

Thank YOU so much for the cat food YOU send me. And the litter. And the hoomans to keep every thing clean for me !!! I preciate you SO much on this beautiful sunny day!!!

I really do have to say YOU are something to crow about !!! Thank you for the cracked corn.

YOUR kindness makes me SMILE !!! Thank you for the sweet feed. And the nice straw to sleep in.

Can you get me some more mud? It’s running out here.
Thank YOU for being YOU, and for the sweet feed !!!

I love MOOOOOO so much. I love the sweet feed and the hay you get for me !!!

Oh !! Hi there ! Thank you for sweet feed. Come visit me on Saturday, and bring apples !!! The gate is open from noon till 3 pm !!! Bring some donations to DONATION DROP OFF and you’ll

get to visit with lots of us and feed us !!!! Don’t YOU think it’d be fun to feed ME ??? I sure do !!!
Thank YOU for the cracked corn. And especially thank YOU for making a place called Rikki’s Refuge be here. Horrible things happen to most of my kind. I’m so thankful that YOU support Rikki’s Refuge so I can have home where I can live my whole life and nobody will want to eat me.

Thank YOU for the food !!! I especially liked the canned food you sent me!! It was so good !!! I’m so happy on days there’s enough canned food for all of us.

Baaaaa and THANK YOU for the sweet feed !!! Bring me some pears and come to visit on Saturday !!


YOU’re so special to me !!!

Thank you for all you do for all of us !!!

Chevy giving this Ford a good hard shove …..

Ohh I hate the rules here.

I so want to …..

As THAT time approaches …. the crowds begin to form

The same scene plays out all across the refuge …..

the hoomans clean it up ….. and the animals dirty it up !!!

If you’re coming to Donation Drop Off on Saturday, grab some bleach and detergent to bring !!

The last little bit of ice left at Rikki’s. The geese are hoping it will melt into a great big pond !!

Investigating something a goat reached in and grabbed !!! Why do all sheds and everything have kitty doors? It’s too easy for a free ranger to dash in when you’re not looking, and we don’t them locked up and stuck inside. So it’s a safety issue.

Where are you off to Mr. Peacock

Rollin with a load of cat food

Everyone at Rikki’s Refuge is thankful for your support

because YOU are what makes it all possible !!!

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

Thank YOU !!!

March 06, 2021 Saturday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

Another bright, bright, bright, sun shiny day !!!

Still here and hanging out on his own. He rushed forward this morning to claim a pool of his own.

Every pool, every water container, from bowls to 300 gallon troughs, must be scrubbed and bleached out every day.

We use about 3 gallons of bleach a day and half a gallon of dish washing soap !! Don’t even ask how many rolls of paper towels we go thru picking up those nasty presents so many of our friends leave around for us !!!!

You’re NOT speaking of ME, are you?

Panda supervises while dishes are washed up!

You COULD just let me lick them clean !

Don’t forget, you have to wash and sanitize all the carriers that you make us go to the doc’s in too.

Kiss Kiss, I love YOU !!!

What was THAT for ?

Hangin out on a nice sunny day

By late afternoon, some of our residents thought it was warm enough to seek shade.

Did I just hear the dinner bell ?

We all get to eat at Rikki’s Refuge

because YOU love us and YOU send food !!!

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

Thank YOU !!!

March 05, 2021 Friday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

Ohhh another BEAUTIFUL day !!!

And with the warmer weather we can use the hoses again !!! So wonderful not to have to carry 5 gallon bucket of water, sloshing down our legs and into our boots !!!

Listenin to da hoomans … blah blah blah

yeah yeah yeah

Smoky Joe’s feathers rustling in the light breeze

So many dishes to wash …. every day …. twice a day
Mount Dishmore !!

We drag a can around the big fields and fill it with poop.
Yep, all the poop has to be cleaned up.
Load it in the tractor and haul it to the compost pile.
Everything but the cat and dog poo, which has to be bagged and hauled to the dump!
Herbivore poo is fine to compost. Not so with carnivores ! Too much risk of disease to the wildlife.
Cleaning poo is one of the jobs less savory in warm weather than when it’s freezing !!!

The sundeck is a favored place today !!

YOUR support gives the animals a second chance at Rikki’s Refuge !!!!

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

With out YOU these animals would have no home !

Thank YOU !!!

March 04, 2021 Thursday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

4 am under a full moon – time to start the day


Do you HAVE to start in here, hooman? I could use a little more sleep.

I’m ready for breakfast !!! Thank you for coming so early, hooman.

An hour later, the cats are fed, their beds in the wash, litter boxes changed, floors scrubbed, and we’re ready to head outside to work


The sun is on the way


Looks like it will be another beautiful day !

Since merging Emu Estates and Piggy Paradise, at the insistence of the emus, their breakfast must be high out of reach of the tallest pig. Emus eat much slower than pigs. If the pigs could reach, there’d be nothing left for the emus. Some animals eat till they are comfortably full. Others must eat everything they can get to their mouths !!! Now you know why that term is used for hoomans with the same habits !!!

Wez can have breakfatz now, pleaz?

Hooman? Hey Hooman?

Pay attention to me!!!

I’ve picked out what we’d like for breakfaz. You open now, ok?

Yes, Hooman, this will do fine, thank you. Waldo

Hauling the hay to the big ‘uns … one bale at a time !

Uncle Paul bought this tractor for us !!!! Our old tractor wasn’t big enough to pick up a bale of hay. Hay can weigh up to 1,500 pounds a bale. And a pallet of food weighs about 1,000 pounds. And our little tractor would tilt forward with the wheels off the ground. Uncle Paul’s big tractor has a bush hog that is TEN FEET across …. our little tractor’s is only 4 feet. That means when we’re mowing big areas, it goes 2 1/2 times faster. And since there is never enough time to do everything we’d like o every day at Rikki’s Refuge, that means a lot.

Thank you so much Uncle Paul. I hope you know how much this tractor has meant to us over the years !!!! You’re an awesome Uncle to all the animals !!!

Once the hay is in place and the big guys and gals are distracted munching away, we can take their grain out to them and distribute it to every body. If they see their grain coming first, they’ll charge you and rip the bags from your hands. And us little hoomans don’t have much chance playing tug of war with 1,000 and 1,500 pound animals !!!!!

Next come the cracked corn for the birds and a few of the others. Anybody who needs fattening up get some corn.

Once everybody is fed and happy, the serious cleaning begins. With over 100 giant litter boxes to dump, clean and refill …. it takes a LOT of litter !!!!

On such a beautiful, sunny, cool day, everyone spends the afternoon snoozing and playing in the sun. Well all the animals.



King of the Mountain


STOP workin and scratch my belly !!!

ME too !!!!!

And part of the job is taking time to hand out love and pats and scratches and shoulder rides.



The purrfect mis of mud and sunshine …… total bliss


Mr Peacock isn’t playing fair, when I try to claim the mountain, he flaps his wings in my face and screams !!!! Shadow

Meanwhile the hoomans have a lot of work to do.
Every couple days trips to the store to bring in feed are necessary

and litter

They have to go to the dump, they have to wash litter boxes, they have to do the dishes, and it’s a LOT of dishes for all these animals !!! They have mountains of laundry to keep clean. They have to fence and gate maintenance, they have roofs to fix and plumbing problems, and diesel to get for the tractor, and inventory to check to make sure there’s enough food for tomorrow, but also bleach and laundry detergent and dish washing detergent and fabulosso to mop the floors with and everything else they’ll need, like paper towels, and maybe even toilet paper for the primates who use the porta potty !!!

5 o’clock comes and go and with the longer days, nobody even notices, the work goes on.

If the work isn’t done by the time the sun has gone down, the headlamps come out !!

YOU support makes this all possible !!!!

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

With out YOU these animals would have no home !

Thank YOU !!!

March 03, 2021 Wednesday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

The sun comes up on another beautiful day at Rikki’s Refuge

Meanwhile ….. at Bovine Boulevard …..
as the sun rises all the cow come out, marching in the same direction, coming to investigate ….

What is THAT stuck on our fence?

Don’t worry guys, just something that blew in overnight. We’ll get rid of it for you !!!
Every fence line must be inspected, every morning, and every evening, no matter the weather. And in icy or windy weather where a tree might come down on a fence, even more often !!! Occasionally some kind of debris catches on a fence too. The animals are always very curious about anything different or out of the ordinary in their neighborhoods.

Once everyone’s been checked on and any issues have been dealt with, it’s the mostest favoritest time of the day !! BREAKFAST !!!

Kneeling to say grace before Breakfast.

Did you say BREAKFAST !!!

Let’s wrap up this meeting, I hear breakfast on the way !

Oh yeah !!!! MY favorite time of the day !!

… until DINNER !!!

Stealing some cat food

Everybody gets fed even when they’re stubborn about coming to the table !

The Life Center has a heat pump for heating and cooling. We must heat to keep pipes from freezing. And many elderly or special needs residents live in the Life Center too. They need heating and on the hottest most humid days, some of them need the cooling.

The last electric bill was more than double the normal, so we asked Don (the bestest hvac guy on the planet) to come out and check it out. Fortunately it just needed charging and it’s all better now and that electric meter is spinning a lot slower !!!

BUT …. there’s now a $243 bill to pay. If you’d like to help any of the oldsters or special needs residents of the Life Center pay their bill YOU CAN !!! www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate

Thank you for helping us. I have very fractious diabetes and have problems with real temperature changes. I have asthma and can’t breath very well when I’m cold or when it’s really hot and humid. I’m very elderly and my joints are so terribly stiff if I get cold. Thank you so much for helping us. We just don’t have the health to be able to get jobs to pay our bills. We rely on YOU. YOU are the miracle that gives US life ! Thank you so much for making it better.

Trying to get that itch !

The goats will tilt their heads back to scratch their shoulders and upper back. I so often wish I had horns to reach those hard to get places !!! Imagine just being able to tilt your head back and get a good back scratch !!!

Good swimmin holes are getting scarce as we start to dry out from days of rain

The ducks are not thrilled with this wonderful beautiful sunny weather !!!

Oh please ! Let it RAIN !!!

Donations of livestock feed …..

Donations for the cats and dogs

We are SO very thankful for days like these where there is enough food to go around for all. Even those who want a second helping. It’s so hard when we have to ration canned food and say, I’m sorry, you’re young, you’re healthy, you’ll have to skip canned food today.

Thank you so much for your mail in donations of canned cat and dog food.

Did you know we’re now open for DONATION DROP OFF on Saturdays? From noon to 3 pm. AND when you come with donations, you can visit with the larger animals, cows, goats, horses, sheep, pigs, on a self guided tour. Bring them apples and carrots and you’ll make friends for life !!!

NO. I am not coming down. I know you’re hiding a pill.

Medicating your patients can be quite challenging at times ! Unless they’re sick enough to need confinement in a cage, first you have to find them, then you have to climb to them, capture them, convince them not to bite, claw, horn or kick you, and often, clean your wounds and bandage up before moving on to the next patient !!

Bedding needs to be changed out very frequently while nights are cool and mud abounds !!

She just loves to help spread around fresh straw !!!

As the sun goes down

We’re so grateful for YOU and your support !

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

We could not survive with out YOU !

Thank YOU !!!