June 2004 News
Hi again everyone
Well, it is only the first day of June and I think we are in for one hot summer. And because it is going to be so hot we cannot stress enough that you ensure your animals are provided cool clean water, shade, shelter, and any other necessity to keep them safe and healthy. After all, we are the only ones they have to help them. I cannot stress this enough. Please never leave your pets in your vehicle even with the window cracked or open. The inside temperatures will still reach deadly numbers with the windows open. I went out to my car on Memorial Day and the temperature reading was 107 degrees until I started moving. Even 80 degrees or higher your pets will die from heat stroke. Please remember to give all your animals clean fresh water, shelter from the sun and heat, and a safe clean environment to live in. Remember that you are all these animals have and they depend on you
We’ve done a lot of work out at Yogie this last month. Tim poured over 12,000 pounds of concrete (150 eighty pounds bags) by hand in the lockdown pens. This was very much needed. We place the cats in the lockdowns in order to clean and repair their pens. We never keep them in the lockdowns for any extended length of time. Sometimes they even like to go in and lay on the cool concrete. We also use the lockdowns to place larger than normal pieces of food for the animals. So, the concrete is the best material for sanitizing.
We have also upgraded the entire electrical and security systems on the grounds by adding more cameras and extending their coverage, made another small patio seating area for our visitors, and added more safety features to the cat living areas. We are constantly improving on the living areas for the animals. This is what it is all about. The cats!
If you have been out to Yogie and Friends you will have noticed a large red barn looking building on the grounds. I bought this (out of my own personal money and not from the animal funds) for an education building. This building will be used so that when we conduct tours we can educate about each species of animal and give a little history of them before going out to see the animals. It gets so hot and this will provide a wonderful opportunity for information sharing. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get grants for this project. The building is a good thing for us. There will be a small 3 by 5 office and a handicap accessible bathroom in the back portion of the building. The front portion will be for educational, fundraising projects and volunteer meetings. We just need the materials to finish the building. Materials such as insulation, drywall, nails, and the basic guts required to make it a nice classroom. Nothing fancy, just nice. It is coming along and I have to thank Jim Denney for his diligent work with getting the bathroom together. Once the walls and other finish work is done we will be able to allow public restroom access. Call me if you can help with any funding or the materials for this building. We can use the help.
Also, we are in need of building a privacy fence. We need the materials to build a 6-foot privacy fence to create an entranceway to the sanctuary. We estimate it would cost approximately $2000 in materials and we will do the building of it ourselves. It is important for us to separate the parking area from the animal viewing area. This will decrease the noise of vehicles driving on the property and be less stressful to the animals. If you can help with this project, then please call us.
The 1st Annual Children’s Animal Education Fair was held on May 8th at the Expo Hall in Shreveport. Since this was the first of its kind it wasnt as crowded as some expected. I do believe that is was a wonderful start to what will be the beginning of a well-needed educational experience about animals in the Ark-La-Tex. I had the opportunity to meet several people and it was a lot of fun.
Our VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH this month is Sara Lyles from Baton Rouge. Sara will be entering her second year of veterinarian school in the fall at LSU. I met her when I went to speak at the school in March. Sara had the opportunity to observe the cats at times others dont normally see them. She also helped me get the second patio together. She saw the hard work it takes to work with exotics and as a future vet can see what the medical issues will be. We appreciate the input she provided us and hope she can come back again in the future. We wish her luck with her studies at LSU. Thanks again, Sara.
We hope that you will consider Yogie and Friends when giving financially. We need the help and support of the public to care for these wonderful animals. We have received gifts in memory of lossed loved ones and realize that it takes a special person to do this during their time of sadness. Remember that your gifts are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. We appreciate what you do when you help us.
The cost of food is ever increasing. The water and electric bills get so much higher for us at this time of year. It is not unheard of for us to have a water bill of $175.00 or more a month compared to $12.00 a month in the wintertime. We have pools for our animals and it is a great source of fun and enrichment for them. We need a great deal of financial support and hope you can help.
If you are willing and able to come and work hard we can use your help. I am needing to train people to collect admission, work tables at local pet stores, do car washes, etc. The majority of the work on the premises will be demanding and physical. Things such as digging and hauling loads of dirt into the cat pens, cleaning the food trays, mowing, weed eating, and other grounds maintenance. Sorry, but we cannot allow anyone below the age of 18 to work on the property. We can use you at fundraisers. Better yet, kids can help by creating ways to raise money for the animals. Shreve Island Elementary School first grade class raised $554.00 this last month for the cats. Way to go kids!
Hope you come out and visit us soon.
Jenny
Posted in Monthly Newsletter and tagged 2004 June News, Latest News, Yogie and Friends News
2004 January News
Hi,
Can you believe another year is now upon us? We hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday and now its on to the New Year.
There are so many needs at Yogie and Friends and I felt that it required my full attention to do them. So, I quit my job as a mental health clinical manager. Many people would think that is a pretty foolish thing to do. Give up a semi decent paying job. Well, I am retired Air Force too and I figure that pays my mortgage and car payment. I dont need much else. I feel the animals can use my full-time fundraising help. After all, isnt this what Yogie and Friends is all about? Taking care of the cats? So, I will be pounding the pavement, so to speak, to help raise money to make the sanctuary even nicer for our cats.
We have 18 animals now. This past year we had to turn away 60 big cats and one bear. But, we were still able to accept 4 cats. Taz, Boudreau, Batman and Robin. We always want to do more, but because of the lack of funds we cant.
We decided to close for the winter from December 15th to April 1st. Usually we have really bad weather with rain, wind, mud, and the usual yuck that comes with it. Even though we do close for this time we will do tours if the weather permits. Just give us a call and if we can do a tour we will. But, because we are closed during these months it makes it tougher on the financial stuff. You can still donate on-line or by sending your donations directly to Yogie and Friends. Deer season is over and now we need a great deal of your help with funds for food. Hope you can help us with this.
Our VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH is David and Tonia Zuber. They built another beautiful house for us. This one is for Morticia and Pooh Bear. They love it and we are very grateful. The timing was perfect with the changing weather. Thanks again!
I recently filled out the paperwork to try for the KTBS one class at a time grant. It is a $1000 grant that they do to help with education. If we are fortunate enough to get this it will be used to complete the inside of the education building we have now on sight. We have a 16×24 building that we need to insulate, drywall, put power in and start teaching. So, keep your fingers crossed. This will be a good thing.
We had a little difficulty getting our sign posted in a good spot for our visitors, but we recently were able to post it thanks to a wonderful lady next door. Ms. Nevada Walker let us post it on her property so that people coming out can see it from either direction on the Stonewall-Frierson road. Thanks so much Ms. Walker for your kindness.
This past year we have completed a great deal of work on the facility. We are always trying to upgrade and make the sanctuary a much nicer place for the cats and our visitors. This year our plans are to continue upgrading the facility to make safety improvements and the overall esthetics. We just finished work on putting together a walk-in cooler. This will help with easier handling and storage of food. However, we are still in need of a walk-in freezer. Hopefully this year we will get the funds to accept as many cats as we are offered and not have to turn any away. This is our goal and our dream.
The weather is outside has gotten colder so please make sure your pets and livestock have fresh unfrozen water. Check their food and water daily to make sure it is sufficient. Also make sure they have a warm dry place to live.
We can still use lots of help. If you want to volunteer with anything please give us a call. Tim needs help with physical labor and I can use help with the fundraising. Check with us if you want to help the cats.
As always be kind to your animals. You are all that they have. Hope to see or hear from you soon.
Jenny
VP, Yogie and Friends
Here is a little information about me, Jenny Senier
I was born and raised in Boston. I joined the Air Force when I was 17 and I retired from it in 1998. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Board Certified Substance Abuse Counselor, and Nationally Certified Counselor. Phew! Thats a mouthful isnt it? I work at a mental health rehab in Shreveport and I work with several children. I have found several of the children I work with are often very withdrawn and wont talk much. But, when I bring them to see these cats I can hardly shut them up. These animals do wonders to help others as well. I started working with Tim to help write grants. Sadly, I found that there are no grants for sanctuaries such as ours. Yes, Chimp Haven has, but they qualified because of the research chimps they will house. So, we depend on the public and our own salaries to do this. I am the person who conducts tours and gets out to the public to try and educate. This is a team effort and lots of work. It is very rewarding once you see these beautiful animals and then to see them get better, like Delilah. We need your help. We hope you will.
Posted in Monthly Newsletter and tagged 2004 January News, Latest News, Yogie and Friends News
2003 December News
Hi Everyone,
Hard to believe it is already December. This means lots of things for lots of reasons. For the animals at Yogie and Friends it will mean more needs and hope that our generous friends and animal lovers will be there for us. We hate that we have to close for the winter months, but the weather gets so rainy and makes the sanctuary too muddy and cold for visitors. On occasion we do get out of town visitors and they may call and make special arrangements to visit if the weather permits. We are really going to need your help during these lean months. We will be closing to the public starting December 15th until the 1st of April.
We are proud to announce that we are now members of the Desoto Parish Chamber of Commerce. We were able to become members this last month and hope to be more active in some of the activities they will have.
You can help in several ways. Financial is always the biggest need in any non-profit organization. Since we get no government support or any grant money we really count on you to help us. Tim and I both work full-time jobs and we receive NO COMPENSATION from Yogie and Friends. All money raised by donations or fundraisers is put into the facility to run it and care for the cats. I promise you that your contributions are used wisely.
Petco has added Yogie and Friends to the Tree of Hope this year. We will be one of the recipients of this wonderful program. All you have to do is go to Petco on Youree Drive in Shreveport and buy an ornament at the cash register. You can buy in denominations of $1, $5, $10, and $20. The more you buy, the more the animals will benefit. Go check it out. What a great holiday gift you can buy.
We also have a link on the website now that you can donate by credit card. Please take advantage of this link. It is user friendly and the best way for our friends all over the world to donate to us. Remember, your donations are tax deductible.
If you’ve been out to the sanctuary recently you will see some of the esthetic changes to the facility. We have new wooden name signs on each of the cat pens. We would like to thank Dwayne ONeal for doing this for us. He burned the names in the wood. Tim made ME paint them. Still they look great.
We also have information stations of each species of cat posted in front of the pens. These are educational and informative. They are designed in such a way that even children can understand and learn about the cats. I was able to make these myself with a little inexpensive wood and the help of Pam at Barksdale Arts and Crafts.
There are lots of good things happening at Yogie and Friends. We are constantly striving to make things safer and more secure for both the animals and us who work with them. We are currently making preparations for installing stainless steel feeding chutes in each pen so that there will never be any risk of contact with an animal when it comes to feeding. After all, these are still animals and when they are ready to eat they are ready to eat. We do need donations of cement to complete the feeding stations as well as some of our safety lockdown areas. If anyone has a cement truck with a chute to help out that would be great.
We are also trying to complete an education building. This will be used primarily for educating schools and special tours that come out to the sanctuary. It will give us the opportunity to educate about the cats before actually going around the sanctuary to see them. We need items such as insulation, drywall, electrical, etc. You can call for more information about the needs here. It wont take much to get it up and running.
We would like to thank several people this month for their contributions either financial or with their skills. Thanks to David Tanner and Ron Yates who helped build the feeding chutes. They had the talent and skills to work with the sheet metal. We really appreciate it. Also, the Krewe of Barkous and Meoux have renewed their monthly support of $100 per month. You have no idea how much we appreciate this. This will help us with our food bill throughout the lean winter months when we have to close to the public.
Our VOLUNTEER of the month is the Stonewall Deer Processing, Macs Place. Macs place has been donating deer during the season. This helps feed the cats and it also adds variety to their diet. We thank them and hope you will visit them and bring your deer to them for processing.
We can also use volunteer help with fundraising and general labor. Tim and Jim Denney have been working hard on putting up fences, building security lockdowns, and many other things. I am sure they would welcome the help here. I have been a little out of pocket and am behind on contacting potential fundraising volunteers because I was in a car accident on November 17th. So I apologize to those I have not contacted yet. Please be patient with me there. I am trying to get things rolling again.
I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday. Please remember to keep your animals safe, warm, fed, and cared for during the year. Get them the veterinarian care they so richly deserve and just love them. They are so unconditional.
Happy Holidays!
Jenny Senier
VP, Yogie and Friends
Posted in Monthly Newsletter and tagged 2003 December News, Latest News, Yogie and Friends News