January 2017 Newsletter

Happy New Year!

We hope that this year brings new hope and joy to you all. We hope and pray for a miracle for the sanctuary as well to continue and help these amazing animals we have rescued and care for. A task that is not easy, nor possible, without the help of the Yogie and Friends fans and supporters. We thank you for this.

2016 had its blessings and difficulties for us. As is expected there will be loss of animal life. Our goal has always been to give them the best life possible for the time they have left, which we always hope is years, but we also realize that these cats have special needs and some don’t always live as long as we would like them too. But, we take comfort in knowing we give them a quality life when we cannot always give them the quantity of life.

We haven’t done a “year in review highlights” style newsletter in a while, so we decided to do a modified style this time.

First is Thank You! A special thank you goes to our webmasters Paige and Damon Bass for all they do to keep our website up and running. I know I often throw things at them and that it is a lot of work, but they do a great job for us and we know we could never do this without them. Believe us when we say how much we love and appreciate all they do for us. They are even working on updates and modifications to the site now to improve an already awesome site. Know that the work they do for us has not gone unnoticed or appreciated. Thank you both again!

Thank you to ALL our volunteer staff. Everyone at Yogie and Friends is a volunteer. Myself included. None of us receives any compensation for the work we do at the sanctuary because we want 100% of the proceeds to go to taking care of the animals. What your donation pays for is: Cat food, cat litter, veterinarian care, boarding of our big cats in Oklahoma, electric, water, and insurance. Our overhead is not huge, but we make sure our bills are paid and the animals are safe. So, thanks to our volunteers:

Damon and Paige Bass

Vicki Volk – Board Member

Andrea Labor

Tim Mills – Founder and Board Member

Jaret Snow – Board Member

Kathy Cherry – Board Member

Alan Golden – Board Member

Celeste Alexander – Board Member

 

It takes a team to make it work! Thank you so much!

And a special thank you to those who donated to us financially. This is most important for the care and support of the animals. Thank you!

We still have five remaining big cats in boarding in Oklahoma and they are doing amazing as always. They love seeing us when we visit them.

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our Christmas Bake Sale. It was an amazing fundraiser and we had a great time meeting new people and visiting with our regulars. We are grateful to those who remain loyal to our cause. Thank you again!

In Memoria:

2016 was a difficult year for us.

January 2016:

We sadly lost our beautiful cougar, Boudreaux, on 23 January 2016. It was a difficult beginning to the New Year, but he was 20 years old and he was much loved and had wonderful love and care with us.

July 2016:

Our beloved tiger, Putty Tat, died on 9 July 2016. He had gone into kidney failure, which is not an uncommon thing in older, domestic cats as well. He was one of our first tigers at Yogie and Friends and he held a special place in so many of our hearts. It’s always difficult when we lose any animal. We are just grateful for the time we could give him. Putty Tat loved swimming in the pool and was one of the most playful tigers. We are so happy Tim had been with him just a couple of weeks before he died. R.I.P. dear Putty. We loved you so.  Putty Tat 17 September 1998 – 9 July 2016.

September 2016:

Our sweet and loving boy, Pippin, has died on September 20th.We were asked by Paws4Life, a volunteer group that works with Caddo Animal Control, if we could take this young kitten since he tested positive for feline leukemia. He arrived at Yogie and Friends in July, but he never thrived physically. He never got above 5.1 pounds and his young body just could not fight this virus. It is a devastating virus for young cats and kittens and they often don’t make it past 2 years old. We always dread the diagnosis of FeLV much more so than FIV. The vet also suspected he had another deadly illness called Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) and he was slightly jaundiced showing he had liver issues. Pippin was especially hard on me personally since I did everything I could to help him gain weight and feel better. He fought the good fight and we will miss him. R.I.P. Pippin.

We also sadly announce the loss of one of our big cats, Batman. Batman was a beautiful lion who arrived with his littermate brother, Robin. They were used as roadside photo shoots and when they became too large to legally use them for this, the owner asked us to take them. We did. Batman is Moses’ father. It breaks our hearts to lose another amazing animal. The dynamic due is back together again at the Rainbow bridge. R.I.P. Batman. We will miss you so.

November 2016:

Mongo, one of our beautiful African Servals has sadly died. He was born 20 November 1999 and died 24 November 2016. He died peacefully in his sleep from natural causes. As sad as we are for this loss, we are happy that Mongo died from old age and there was no illness or injury or any need to have to make a painful medical decision. He was 17 years old and he died on his own terms. We couldn’t ask for anything more, well, except maybe more time, but the average life span of a Serval ranges anywhere from 15-20 years. He was a beautiful cat that will be sorely missed.

December 2016:

On 24 December, we sadly had an otherwise healthy cat throw a blood clot and he sadly died at the ER vet. This was a sad and horrible holiday season for us. Sebastian was a sweet and gentle cat that we truly never expected anything like this, but like humans, strokes, blood clots, and heart attacks are truly unexpected events that can often lead to death. We were all devastated by this event. Sebastian was only seven years old.

We have a geriatric population of exotics and we know that we are facing more losses. It’s the most difficult part of what we do in rescue. We take comfort in knowing that we give these animals the best, outside of what nature may have offered, but they are safer with us in many ways because they are given a quality diet, great veterinary care, and are not at risk from any predators, human or animal.

The “Six Pack” Kittens: The kittens that we pulled from the local animal pound because they were sickly and being horribly cared for, are now healthy and driving and are now available for adoption. It’s a little good news from a sad year for us.

We have a few medical needs with a couple of the cats, which is expected, but they are all doing amazingly well. One cat, Sarah, goes into surgery tomorrow for what we are hoping is just a fatty tumor, but it will cost over $600 and we can use your help with bills like this and hope you will consider helping us. You can help us in many ways.

 Donate Cash:

Donations of cash are what we need most. You can donate online via PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to use a credit card to make a one-time donation via PayPal.

Louisiana and Texas Kroger Shoppers: If you have not already done so, it’s time to relink your Kroger Community Rewards to your Kroger Plus Card. Every time you shop at a Texas or Louisiana Kroger and use your Plus Card, Kroger will donate a portion of the sale to Yogie and Friends to help the FIV and other special needs cats we have at the sanctuary. Every little bit helps! Here is the link to enroll or sign in (if you are already enrolled). Choose us as your charity of choice. NPO #80724, Yogie and Friends Exotic Cat Sanctuary (we will be fixing the name later, but it’s still all good). https://www.kroger.com/communityrewards

Recycle Ink Cartridges: New labels have arrived and are available for you to ship cartridges out for recycling. Please consider helping us with our recycling program.  Don’t throw those old ink jet/laser jet cartridges in the trash. Give them to us or let us mail you the labels so you can send them out directly and save us a step. We recycle them and get cash for the cats. You can box up the cartridges; put a prepaid label on it that we will provide you, and then drop it off at any UPS shipping facility or they can pick it up at your business. If you need labels, then just contact us and we will get some to you.

Volunteers: We need dedicated volunteers. Volunteering at Yogie and Friends does have its rewards. You get to cuddle with some great cats. You get to meet great people with a similar love for cats and for what we are doing. And we will feed you! Lol! But really, it’s a good feeling and the work is not that difficult. Yes, we will have some very labor intensive jobs as we repurpose the property to safely accommodate domestic cats and yes, there is lawn work, but that’s not all that is needed. We need volunteers who will scoop litter boxes, sweep and mop floors, clean counter tops and work spaces, poop scoop the outdoor cat play areas, and other basic cleaning needs. We also have cats need to be loved and socialized. We hope you will consider helping us make our mission a successful one. Please volunteer with us and help us make life a little nicer for these special cats. You can contact us via email at yogieandfriends@hotmail.com and our volunteer coordinator will call you as soon as possible.

 

Facebook: We have a new Facebook page now. It is called, Yogie and Friends Special Needs Cats. It is a strictly controlled page so that nobody is every bullied or threatened on our page by others. It’s a safe page to share educational information and news about our wonderful cats. Please like on the page and share with your friends.

Cat Food and Cat Litter: We always need cat litter and canned cat food. We are currently using Purina Complete and Purina Indoor Formula for dry food, and Friskies canned (all types). As far as cat litter we use Tidy Cat Scoopable without any scents in it such as Glade. Cats don’t like scented cat litter. We use no harsh chemical products for cleaning. For pest control, we use food grade diatomaceous earth that we spread on the grounds. This is available at most feed stores. Also, washable blankets and throws are greatly appreciated. Please email us if you have any questions about helping with supplies.

SPONSOR A SPECIAL NEEDS CAT:  We are looking for sponsors for our cats. We hope that is you. FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) is a feline only, slow-acting virus. It is so slow to progress that most FIV+ cats die of old age.  Once thought to be deadly and highly contagious, it has since been found to be neither. Just as HIV was once believed to be a death sentence for those afflicted, so it is still with FIV. Only in the case of cats, the mere diagnosis produces that death sentence. Fortunately, there are many veterinarians who don’t believe that this is the case and therefore we got four FIV cats. We got them from veterinarians who did not want to kill them. We do NOT want these cats to die just because of this diagnosis either. They deserve the chance to live. And live they will with us. Now that we have our first FIV positive cats living comfortably in their new home at Yogie and Friends, they will need your support. By sponsoring one of the FIV cats you will be providing food, medical care, and their basic care and support. 100% of the sponsorship goes to the care of these animals. None of the Yogie volunteer staff receives ANY compensation for the work we do.

 

Sponsors Needed:

Please note that more than one person may sponsor some cats, but rest assured that all sponsor funds are used for the ongoing care of our cats.

You can sponsor a cat for just $15 a month, $45 a quarter, or $180 a year.

Cats in need of Sponsoring:

FIV/Feline Leukemia Positive Cats:                               Non-Positive Cats:

Petey                                                                                      Hope                          Elsa

Gatsby                                                                                    Kristoff                       Barney

Paisley                                                                                   Anna                          Duncan

Sunny                                                                                                Sarah                         Muff

VooDoo                                                                                 Blackie                       Penelope

Frazier                                                                                    Luna                           Duckie

Bubba                                                                                                Lucy                           Smudge

King                                                                                        Squeak                      Smokey

Dotsey                                                                                    Bandit                        Snowball

Bruno                                                                                     Natasha                     Boo

Alex                                                                                        Miss Kitty                   Blackie (2)

Splotchie                                                                               Max

 

We hope and pray that 2017 is a more positive and happier year for us. Yes, loss will happen, especially since we have a population of cats with unique needs.

We are hoping to clear the property of the larger habitats we used for our big cats and start building smaller buildings for our domestic cats. Our goal is to have a small vet clinic on site so our vet can do exams and minor procedures on site to prevent added stress from transporting cats to Shreveport. We also want to build a separate quarantine building versus a quarantine room. It’s all possible for not a huge amount of money. We tend to use Gemco metal buildings and do the work to insulate and drywall ourselves to be more cost effective. It’s all possible.

We are also making materials available to other rescues that may want or need it such as fence materials, but you must do the work to take it down. We are tired. Lol!

 

You can mail your donations to us at:

 Yogie and Friends

128 Fob Lane

Frierson, LA 71027

 

If you wish to donate on a regular basis and do not wish to use PayPal, your bank can set up automatic payments for you.

AMAZON WISH LIST: If you shop via Amazon.com you select Yogie and Friends as your charity of choice. They will donate a percentage of the sales to us. It’s a very easy way to help.

https://smile.amazon.com/

We also have an Amazon wish list to help with the feeding and caring of our feral cat colonies as well as the adoptable cats and kittens we are fostering. Please help if you can.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/?ie=UTF8&cid=A2LGJPU9KN7C2N

We still need your financial help with the nine big cats we are boarding and all donations are appreciated as we continue to care for them. They are safe and well.

Money we raise during any of our fundraisers goes to the boarding of our big cats and for TNR. We have always been, and will continue to be, a 100% volunteer driven organization.

 

Upcoming Events:

 

 18 March 2017                     11am – 4 pm Spring Bake Sale and Fundraiser

                                                                                  Petco, 6596 Youree Drive, Shreveport

 

23/23 Apr 2017        10am – 6 pm             SBC Louisiana Comic Con

                                                                              Hirsch Coliseum, Shreveport, LA

 

PLEASE spay and neuter your pets. Adopt! Don’t Shop! Also, please continue heartworm prevention all year round and not just in the summer months. Heartworm disease can be transmitted all year.

 

Jenny and the Yogie and Friends Gang!


Posted in Monthly Newsletter, The News