January 6, 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 )
Humans have a way of thinking they’re the smartest species. But ohhhhhh ….. our animals are always teaching us otherwise !!!!!
Miss Piggy decided to show up us hoomans today !!!
And head out on a walk about. It’s not too hard for a 700 pound piggy to root and dig and shove and push and work their way out of just about any fencing we can build. All fence lines are checked every morning. It gives the hooman miles of exercise walking !!!
Luckily nobody ever goes far when they do bust out. They don’t want to leave their friends for long.
Bet getting them back in the door can be challenging !!!!
They tend to think “see if you can catch me” is a fun game. The hoomans don’t always agree. And then they get to play “fix the fence”. And we never have enough fencing material so always have to make do till we can raise the money for new parts.
Each panel is $23.99. Miss Piggy damaged one badly enough it will never be very secure and needs to be replaces. Two others have become bent over time and will be the next exit point. So really, Miss Piggy better figure out how to raise an extra $71.97 if she doesn’t want to miss a few meals when we take it out of her meal budget !!!!
A bag of piggy food is only $9.99. That’s a 50 pound sack. It takes about 2 and half to feed all the pigs every day. And that means 7 less bags of feed this week if we divert the money to buy fencing.
Ughhhhh would you like to help Miss Piggy out?
www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
PS we never starve our animals or make them pay in food for their misdeeds !!!! But we have struggled everyday since covid shut things down and our supporters have less to share with us. A year ago we would have had extra funds for some fencing. Now we struggle for food and medical care and sanitation on a daily basis. We certainly appreciate any help you can offer.
Chasing Miss Piggy down and fixing her fence enough to hopefully keep her in till we can get some panel has delayed everyone else’s meal !!!
And look who’s arrived !!!!!
It’s Lyn with her vehicle full of donations !!! Lyn drives to our Donation Locations in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania and picks up items from the stores that are nice enough to keep a donation box for Rikki’s Refuge !!! Today she picked up from the Hilltop Giant at 10346 Courthouse Road in Spotsylvania and from 360 Feed & Supply at 5037 Plank Rd in Fredericksburg. YOU can stop in either anytime and buy a few cans of cat or dog food for Rikki’s and leave them in our donation box for Lyn’s next trip out !!!
THANK YOU LYN !!!!!
LUNCH !!!!!! LUNCH !!!!!! LUNCH !!!!!
Hanging out on the sun deck after lunch.
Or hiding in their beds
if they’re relatively new feral arrivals who are still frightened of hoomans.
Time to feed the cows, and that means moving thousand pound giant bales of hay. Something that used to be easy, but will be more difficult until we can afford a new battery for the tractor. I’ll let Tony explain, “I really need a new tractor battery, ours isn’t holding charge and it can be pretty spooky when it cuts off and you have a thousand pound 6×6 hay bail just hanging in the air.”
“For example I have to lift the bail over the fence at least this high so when the power cuts out and you’re going forward, it stalls, lifting the rear tires off the ground. Has me worried about the damage to the tractor if we tip over.”
Unfortunately that battery will cost about $120.
Yikes !!! A lot more than a car battery. But it’s got to start over and over in the cold, be powerful enough to keep the hydraulics working, withstand all the shaking and vibration of a tractor.
www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate if you’d like to help Tony out !!
And last, but certainly not least for the day, Tony finds a tree down on the fencing. It can’t wait until tomorrow. A critter will find it over night and go walking about. They need the safety and protection of their fencing.
Luckily it’s not a big tree so the job won’t be too long to get it cut up and off the fence. When you get extra chores like chasing pigs, dealing with tractors in need of repair, or cutting fallen trees and fixing fences, you still don’t get to skip any of your vital animal care jobs for the day.
Tony will be working well into the night tonight.
And he’s going to need one panel of fencing here, and at least 2 tposts to make a proper repair. Tonight he’ll just do the best he can with what ever materials he didn’t use on Miss Piggy’s fence. Another unexpected $31.77 needed for repairs today. And where will that come from?
While Tony’s missing his dinner to make sure everything is safe for the animals and they’re fed and happy
All the animals are CONTENT at Rikki’s Refuge.
With YOUR help we provide life long homes to well over 1,000 animals each and every day !!!!
Animals who had nowhere else on earth to go.
Thank YOU for making it all possible.