July 2013 Sanctuary Newsletter
Hello All!
Summer is here! And with this comes the high heat and humidity we are so used to here in the south. Please take care of yourself and your animals during these very hot times. It isn’t just us humans who experience heat related illnesses. Our pets do as well and they require the same care and consideration regarding the high temperatures.
We have written a grant to assist with getting the materials for our drainage system project and are just waiting to hear back. The grant is for $5000, so if we get that we are only looking at raising another $4000 for this project. It’s not an easy task, but we can do it with the help of our fans. If you would like to help, then you can send your tax-deductible donation to: Yogie and Friends, 128 Fob Lane, Frierson, LA 71027 or donate via our website. We appreciate any and all help with this project.
We are looking at modifying the name of the sanctuary. Right now it is Yogie and Friends Exotic Cat Sanctuary. Many people, ourselves included, refer to it simply as: Yogie and Friends. It would be nothing more than just dropping the “exotic cat sanctuary” or “exotic cat” portion of our name. We still want to look at keeping sanctuary in our name. We do more than just rescue big cats. It’s showing people the “and friends” part of what we do. This is still a work in progress and we will let you know once we make any changes.
Kroger Community Rewards Program: Kroger has revamped their donation program and it is now called the Kroger Community Rewards Program. Our only concern here is that our fans who are not computer savvy or yet, don’t have one will have difficulty with this program. Hopefully there will be a friend, neighbor, or librarian that can assist them with this. The new program requires that you have a Kroger Plus Card (that’s not new), but it must be registered on-line if you haven’t already done that. Once you have your Plus Card registered you will link your charity of choice to your Kroger Plus Card. You cannot begin linking the card until 1 August 2013 and once it is done your purchases will start to count beginning 1 September 2013. We have a step by step instruction sheet to help you with this. We hope you will be patient and continue to work with this program. Once it is setup it will be a breeze, but we realize some of us are resistant to change. But that’s okay. We’ll get there. Lol! Download a copy of the instructions we have provided on our website.
Coffee Fundraiser: We now have some of this coffee available locally. We purchased the fair trade organic regular roast and decaf. We also have their fair trade tea bags available. We have these items available at the sanctuary for purchase if you are interested. This is a really neat program. You can also make purchases via their website; they will donate $3 per bag to Yogie and Friends. They have several varieties of coffee and tea available. Why not consider some of this in your gift giving? We will have some available at our bake sales too.
http://www.raisemoneyforpets.com/yoandfrexcat.html
Recycle Ink Cartridges and Cell Phones: Our recycling program is one of our best programs. It is a great way to help both our environment and our big cats. It’s a great way to get young kids involved in helping a cause they might not otherwise have a chance to help and it educates them about these issues at the same time. You can donate your empty ink jet and laser cartridges and Yogie gets some much needed funds from this. It may seem small, but it all adds up. There are a couple of ways to get cartridges to us and you can find out more on our website on exactly how to participate. We thank our webmaster, Paige Bass, for getting this program started and her hard work with keeping it going. We really appreciate all her hard work.
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC): Military personnel and Federal Employees can do payroll deduction donations to Yogie and Friends via CFC. This program is easy and another good way to give financial assistance to the big cats. We hope you will please consider Yogie and Friends when making your CFC contribution. Our CFC number is 42427.
Look us up on Facebook and Like our page. We love to share with our fans.
Upcoming Events:
28 Sept 2013 11am-4pm Fall Bake Sale and Fundraiser
Petco, Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA
26 Oct 2013 Noon-5pm Yogie Season Finale
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.
For the cats!
Jenny
Posted in Monthly Newsletter
June 2013 Sanctuary Newsletter
Hello All!
Well summer is almost upon us and it has been feeling like summer for quite some time now for us in Louisiana. With that means more danger for your domestic pets. If you have outdoor animals you need to provide a cool, shaded area for your animals to take shelter from the hot sun. Even though shaded it is still dangerously hot because of the high humidity. We hope you will take extra special care with your animals, indoor and outdoor, by also making sure they have fresh, cool, and clean water at all times. Also, don’t forget when walking your dogs on the sidewalk or any paved area that the temperature of concrete is usually much hotter than you would imagine. We often see dogs with burned pads because their owners don’t realize just how hot it is. Please use care when walking your dogs. It’s the little things that can mean the difference between life and death. And never leave your dogs in a car even with the windows cracked. You may think they are getting proper air circulation, but it is an oven in any car even under a shaded spot. Don’t do it!
We now have a plan of attack for our drainage problem. Our friends from the Navy Sea Bees on Barksdale Air Force Base gave us a written plan and went over what it will take to fix the problem. They gave us a list of supplies that we need and exactly what the work will entail. Now it is a matter of us finding out the costs of some of the materials such as the gravel for the drains. We have a low estimate at this time of $4000-$6000 for materials. Labor will be free since it will be us and volunteers who do the work. We just need some financial help from our fans to purchase the materials. We will get the majority of it from Lowe’s or Home Depot, but will need gravel and dirt. We may not need to buy too much dirt since what we excavate may fill what we need. It’s the cost of gravel we don’t have yet. At least with Lowe’s and Home Depot we can also use our military discount. It saves us 10% and that is a good thing. We will update once we get the price of gravel and dirt so our fans can help. We appreciate our fans and know they will come through for our animals.
Kroger Neighbor to Neighbor: The Kroger Neighbor to Neighbor program is done for the year. The new one will begin again in July. You will need to relink your Kroger Plus Card with our Yogie and Friends letter with the bar code. The bar code is the same every year so you can use the old one. Just give the letter to the cashier along with your Kroger Plus Card and they will scan them. That’s all there is to it. Once that is done every time you shop at a Texas or Louisiana Kroger and use your Kroger Plus Card they will donate a portion of the sales to Yogie and Friends. It’s an easy program and a great program.
Coffee Fundraiser: Raise Money for Pets coffee fundraiser. This is a really neat program. If you purchase coffee via this website, they will donate $3 per bag to Yogie and Friends. This is a fair trade organic coffee and that makes it a win/win in our books. They have several varieties available and also decaf. Why not consider coffee in your gift giving?
http://www.raisemoneyforpets.com/yoandfrexcat.html
Donate your old Apple Products: We are trying out a new program where you can donate your old, non-working, or broken screened, Apple Products such as iPhones, iPods, iPads, and things like that. If you would like to help and donate to Yogie and Friends, you can mail us the items. If you have the original packaging they came in send that too. We get more money for the recycled product.
Recycle Ink Cartridges and Cell Phones: We have a really successful recycling program. You can donate your empty ink jet and laser cartridges and Yogie gets some much needed funds from this. It may seem small, but it all adds up. There are a couple of ways to get cartridges to us and you can find out more on our website on exactly how to participate. This helps the environment and the big cats when you recycle your printer cartridges.
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC): Military personnel and Federal Employees can do payroll deduction donations to Yogie and Friends via CFC. This program is easy and another good way to give financial assistance to the big cats. We hope you will please consider Yogie and Friends when making your CFC contribution. Our CFC number is 42427. UPDATE: CFC may start charging a non-refundable application fee beginning next year. Depending on the cost we may or may not participate. We will keep our fans informed.
Look us up on Facebook and Like our page. We love to share with our fans.
Upcoming Events:
15 June 2013 Noon-5pm Military Appreciation Day
Free Admission on this day to active duty
And retired military personnel with valid military I.D. Card. 10% off admission for their family members with valid military I.D. card.
28 Sept 2013 11am-4pm Fall Bake Sale and Fundraiser
Petco, Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA
26 Oct 2013 Noon-5pm Yogie Season Finale
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.
For the cats!
Jenny
Posted in Monthly Newsletter
May 2013 Sanctuary Newsletter
Greetings!
I realize this update is very late, but I had gone home to Boston to visit family. My trip had been planned prior to all that had happened, so it was a very good, but somber visit. But, here I am with our update.
We had our surprise USDA inspection before I left and the only issue of concern is drainage on the property. This continues to be a problem for us because every time we make improvements it seems to impact another section of the property causing water to get stuck. So we contacted our friends with the Navy Sea Bees on Barksdale Air Force Base to come out and look at the problem areas since we just had several days of hard rain and see what we are dealing with. We will have the team out again in the next week or two to assess, design, plan, or whatever it takes to let us know what we need to do and how to get there. After that we will look at the costs and fundraise accordingly and then plan to do the work. These guys are great and we are very happy to have them here. With three years of drought we never really had the opportunity to see the problem. Now we have and are going to hit it hard and heavy.
Our admissions building is looking good. We just need to do a second coat of paint on the outside of the building and then the inside. We have some Air Force volunteers coming out on the 18th and they will do this work for us. It’s nice to have these volunteer resources available.
Volunteering at Yogie and Friends is a unique opportunity. We always need, and depend on volunteers. If this is something you are interested in we ask you to come out and visit us on any Saturday during our normal noon – 5pm visitor hours and talk with us. We want you to first see who and what we are. Volunteering can be anything from working inside the admissions building, mowing, weed eating, helping with fundraisers, walk around guides (we don’t do guided tours, but walk around and provide information and answers), and basic maintenance around the property. Due to liability issues we ask that volunteers be 18 or older (17 for married or active duty military) and have reliable transportation to the sanctuary (we don’t want to set our schedule for someone and they not show up). We don’t have any veterinary or veterinary assistant volunteer positions. If you are interested, then please come out and make yourself known to us.
Coffee Fundraiser: Raise Money for Pets coffee fundraiser. This is a really neat program. If you purchase coffee via this website, they will donate $3 per bag to Yogie and Friends. This is a fair trade organic coffee and that makes it a win/win in our books. They have several varieties available and also decaf. Why not consider coffee in your gift giving?
http://www.raisemoneyforpets.com/yoandfrexcat.html
Donate your old Apple Products: We are trying out a new program where you can donate your old, non-working, or broken screened, Apple Products such as iPhones, iPods, iPads, and things like that. If you would like to help and donate to Yogie and Friends, you can mail us the items. If you have the original packaging they came in send that too. We get more money for the recycled product.
Recycle Ink Cartridges and Cell Phones: We have a really successful recycling program. You can donate your empty ink jet and laser cartridges and Yogie gets some much needed funds from this. It may seem small, but it all adds up. There are a couple of ways to get cartridges to us and you can find out more on our website on exactly how to participate. This helps the environment and the big cats when you recycle your printer cartridges.
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC): Military personnel and Federal Employees can do payroll deduction donations to Yogie and Friends via CFC. This program is easy and another good way to give financial assistance to the big cats. We hope you will please consider Yogie and Friends when making your CFC contribution. Our CFC number is 42427.
Look us up on Facebook and Like our page. We love to share with our fans.
Upcoming Events:
15 June 2013 Noon-5pm Military Appreciation Day
TBD (Sep) 11am-4pm Fall Bake Sale and Fundraiser
Petco, Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA
26 Oct 2013 Noon-5pm Yogie Season Finale
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.
For the cats!
Jenny
Posted in Monthly Newsletter