Yogie and FriendsFIV+ Cats

Feb 15th February 2019 Newsletter

Hello Yogie Fans!

We hope this newsletter finds all our friends, and their fur friends, safe, happy, and, healthy.

We have had some medical challenges with a couple of cats this past month. And sadly, the thing with cats is, they are EXPERTS at hiding illnesses until they are in a critical state. It’s one reason why we are adamant about observing our cats’ habits and behaviors. Even with that, it is sometimes difficult to catch a problem before it needs bigger intervention. I had to rush Brexit to the ER vet since he was exhibiting signs of a UTI and obstruction, which CAN kill a cat. We got him to our regular veterinarian, Dr. Core, the next day, and Brexit did in fact, have a bad UTI with crystals. He is a young male, which surprised us, but it happens in all ages. He spent a week in the hospital and is now on a special, somewhat expensive, prescription diet now. He is doing very well.

Finn

Another of our rescues, Finn, was losing balance to the point we thought he had a stroke. When our vet scoped his inner ears under anesthesia, he found that Finn has a ruptured ear drum. This will heal, but it has been a very expensive journey with CT and hospitalization. He will have a follow-up on the 25^th.

Between the ER, Cat Scan, hospitalizations, and medications, we had over $3000 in vet bills. That was a hit we could have done without.

NEW CATS: There was a lady in my neighborhood that moved and abandoned her beautiful cat, and another cat she was feeding. When I finally got the cats to adjust and trust me, I got one of them tested so far, and he has tested positive for FIV. I haven’t gotten the other cat yet, who is still intact and will be neutered. I found a female kitten, that I was able to get to trust me and she was spayed this past Thursday. She is about 5 months old, but unfortunately, she tested positive for Feline Leukemia. We do not mix those cats with our other population. Since she is young, we will retest and hopefully that comes back negative. It does happen. We just wish they were all negative, so people don’t wrongly euthanize them. There is no reason to do so. They can live long, otherwise healthy, lives.

Oreo is a beautiful long-haired Tuxedo. He’s sweet but does play rough at times and gets a little bitey when he gets excited from all the love. He is FIV+ and the vet estimates he is about 4 or 5 years old.

Grayson is a beautiful gray and white cat that is still intact. He is scheduled for neutering soon and hope he tests negative.

Sasha is the female, tabby, kitten that tested positive for leukemia, but we are hopeful she will retest negative in a few months. She is spayed now and is a very sweet girl. She is only about five or six months.

GIVE FOR GOOD GIVING DAY: May 7th is the annual, Give for Good giving day. Yogie and Friends is once again approved to participate in this annual, on-line, giving, event. It starts just after midnight on May 7th and runs all day. It’s an opportunity for non-profits all over the country to raise much needed funds for their organization

WATCH RAFFLE: We are raffling off his and her watches. Tickets are a donation of $2.00 each and you can purchase them via PayPal at yogieandfriends@hotmail.com Please make sure you select the Friends and Family option so that you are the one who pays the PayPal fees. This ensures we get the entire $2.00. Also, DO NOT say raffle, but put WATCHES in the comments. You can also send a check or money order to: Yogie and Friends, 128 Fob Lane, Frierson, LA 71027. Make sure you provide a legible name and good contact phone number. The drawing will be held at 3 p.m. at the spring bake sale In April. Winner need not be present. We can mail the watches to winners outside of the area, but in the United States only.

SPONSORSHIP: Sponsorship is a very important way to help our animals. 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. If each cat had a regular, monthly, sponsor, it would help ease the burden of care for the animals we provide sanctuary for. Would you please consider sponsoring one of our animals? We really need you.

Please note that more than one person may sponsor a cat 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.

CRITICAL NEEDS: Vet care is always a primary need. Scoopable cat litter, preferable unscented, but we will take any, as well as cat food, are a given. We feed Friskies or Fancy Feast canned pate, or Purina Cat Chow complete. We do have some on an expensive urinary tract formula that we have to get at the vet. If you can help with a monetary donation, please do. We really hope you can help us in this area.

PAYPAL: Did you know you can do automatic monthly donations to Yogie and Friends via PayPal? This is an easy and effective way to help our fundraising for the animals. You can also choose to pay the fees by selecting the Friends and Family option in PayPal ensuring we would receive the entire amount of your donation. Our PayPal is: yogieandfriends@hotmail.com

CHEWY: Do you shop for pet food and supplies at Chewy. Well, we are a pet partner with Chewy.com. Enter the Chewy website from the link on the Yogie and Friends website and we will get a portion of the sales. This is a great way to help our cats and we hope you will select us as your charity. You can use this link with our partner number: www.chewy.com/rp/6019

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 feed our cats and kittens. We need you!

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

Cats in need of Sponsoring:

FIV/Feline Leukemia Positive Cats:

Alex
Gatsby
Sunny
VooDoo
Frazier
Bubba
Oreo
Dotsey
Sarah
Ursula
Olaf
Brexit
Sasha

Non-Positive Cats:

Hope
Elsa
Max
Barney
Anna
Duncan
Grace
Muff
Blackie
Penelope
Blacky
Duckie
Lucy
Smudge
Squeak
Smokey
Bandit
Snowball
Natasha
Boo
Miss Kitty
Paisley
Sam
Grayson (Pending Snap Test/Neutering)

You can also mail your donations to us at:

Yogie and Friends
128 Fob Lane
Frierson, LA 71027

Louisiana and Texas Kroger Shoppers: If you link 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

Donations of cash can be done in several ways, online via PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to use a credit card to make a one-time donation via PayPal. Or you can mail a check or money order to: Yogie and Friends, 128 Fob Lane, Frierson, LA 71027

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.

Facebook: Please like and follow us on Facebook at Yogie and Friends FIV+ Cat Sanctuary. 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.

Upcoming Events:

6 April 2019                            11am – 3 pm           Spring Bake Sale and Fundraiser
                                                                                         Petco, 6596 Youree Drive, Shreveport 

7 May 2019                             All Day                       Give for Good Day On-Line Giving Day

TBD June 2018                                                          Olive Oil & Vinegar Tasting (On-Line/In-Store) Bella Nonna’s Olive Oil & Vinegar – Tasting Bar
                                                                                             1409 E. 70^th St., Suite 107
Shreveport, LA

PLEASE spay and neuter your pets. Adopt! Don’t Shop!

Jenny and the Yogie and Friends Gang!

Jan 1st January 2019 Newsletter

Happy New Year to our Yogie and Friends Fans!

Another year has come and gone, and we always wonder where has the time gone? Some of our plans for 2018 came to fruition, and some are still a work in progress. That’s okay though. It comes with the territory of the type of work we do. We must prioritize what we can, and will do, but the priority is ALWAYS the health and well-being of our animals. If that puts us behind on some work completion, that is fine with us. As long as our animals are healthy, safe, and, happy, then that is good. The other things will work their way out.

Thank you to ALL our volunteer staff. Everyone at Yogie and Friends is a volunteer. 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. So, thanks to our volunteers. Here are the Yogie and Friends people:

Tim Mills – Founder and Board Member
Jenny Senier – Director
Vicki Volk – Vice President and Board Member
Damon and Paige Bass – Webmasters
Jaret Snow – Board Member
Alan Golden – Board Member
Andrea Labor – Volunteer Staff

We have had some challenges and sad losses throughout 2018, but it is not unexpected due to the nature of our rescue. We are heartbroken with every loss.

Who we loved and lost during 2018:

African Serval, Speedy, 12 January
African Lioness, Yogie. 2000 – 18 February 2018
Petey – Black and White DLH, 27 February 2018
Casper, Solid White DSH – 23 March 2018
American Bobcat, Taz – 15 April 2018
Bruno, Seal Point Siamese – 22 October 2018

We loved and miss them.

We want to thank our volunteers and supporters who came out and helped us with our gift wrapping, and the Christmas Bake Sale. We meet so many great people at our events and it’s also a chance to catch up with old friends. We had a good bake sale and it helped us pay off a veterinarian bill, which is great. We try and always pay as we go, but sometimes it’s not always possible. We are happily back to a clean slate of no debt and are working on building our funds to remain that way.

We are looking forward to a new year with new, and more exciting, positive changes, for our facility. We are working on clearing the old property of the big cat habitats. Our new cat building is basically completed, except for the outside catio, which won’t prevent us from using it for the cats. We are working on grants to complete a big, outdoor, catio as soon as possible.

We are at capacity at this time, but we hope, in the not too distant future, that we can expand to accept more cats in need. We don’t want to take on more than we can handle, both handler wise, and financially. Since our cats remain with us forever, we must be careful not to overextend ourselves. That would not be fair to the cats already in our sanctuary. This is also where sponsorship comes in. We need you to help us continue to provide for the residents at Yogie and Friends and we hope you will consider doing so.

SPONSORSHIP:  Sponsorship is a very important way to help our animals. 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. If each cat had a regular, monthly, sponsor, it would help ease the burden of care for the animals we provide sanctuary for. Would you please consider sponsoring one of our animals? We really need you.

Please note that more than one person may sponsor a cat, 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.

CRITICAL NEEDS: Vet care is always a primary need. Scoopable cat litter, preferable unscented, but we will take any, as well as cat food, are a given. We feed Friskies or Fancy Feast canned pate, or Purina Cat Chow complete. We do have some on an expensive urinary tract formula that we have to get at the vet. If you can help with a monetary donation, please do. We really hope you can help us in this area.

PAYPAL: Did you know you can do automatic monthly donations to Yogie and Friends via PayPal? This is an easy and effective way to help our fundraising for the animals. You can also choose to pay the fees by selecting the Friends and Family option in PayPal ensuring we would receive the entire amount of your donation. Our PayPal is: yogieandfriends@hotmail.com

CHEWY: Do you shop for pet food and supplies at Chewy. Well, we are a pet partner with Chewy.com. Enter the Chewy website from the link on the Yogie and Friends website and we will get a portion of the sales. This is a great way to help our cats and we hope you will select us as your charity. You can use this link with our partner number:  www.chewy.com/rp/6019

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 feed our cats and kittens. We need you!

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

Cats in need of Sponsoring:

FIV/Feline Leukemia Positive Cats:

Alex
Gatsby
Sunny
VooDoo
Frazier
Bubba
Nimitz
Dotsey
Sarah
Ursula
Olaf
Brexit

Non-Positive Cats:

Hope
Elsa
Max
Barney
Anna
Duncan
Grace
Muff
Blackie
Penelope
Blacky
Duckie
Lucy
Smudge
Squeak
Smokey
Bandit
Snowball
Natasha
Boo
Miss Kitty
Paisley
Sam

You can also mail your donations to us at:

Yogie and Friends
128 Fob Lane
Frierson, LA 71027

Louisiana and Texas Kroger Shoppers: If you link 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

Donations of cash can be done in several ways, online via PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to use a credit card to make a one-time donation via PayPal. Or you can mail a check or money order to: Yogie and Friends, 128 Fob Lane, Frierson, LA 71027

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.

Facebook: Please like and follow us on Facebook at Yogie and Friends FIV+ Cat Sanctuary. 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.

Upcoming Events:

 None scheduled at this time

PLEASE spay and neuter your pets. Adopt! Don’t Shop!

Jenny and the Yogie and Friends Gang!

Dec 1st December 2018 Newsletter

Tim and I went to visit Moses in Branson, Missouri from  4-7 November. He is doing well and responded immediately when he heard my voice. Can you believe he will be 13 in February? We also visit Tigger at Tiger Creek in Tyler, Texas quite often. Tigger turned 17 in July. Tiger Creek changed his name to Bagheera, but he is still Tigger and that is what we call him when we see him. I mean, seriously, after 17 years he isn’t going to respond to anything else. Lol! I’d love to get Moses over there for distance reasons, but it’s all good.

Mocha and Latte

Sunny pre-surgery

One of our FIV+ cats, and one of Dr. Core’s patients that we took into the sanctuary, Sunny, was diagnosed with an eye condition called, Spastic Entropion. This caused his eyelids to roll inward and the eyelashes to scratch his corneas. He had ulcers and required eye drops and cleaning daily. It was painful and he was miserable. We found out there was a surgery that could be done to correct it, and on November 13th, Sunny had a successful surgery by Dr. Core at Airline Animal Health and Surgery Clinic. It was a little pricey, $815, but long term it isn’t. No more pain, no eye drops, no poor vision. He is acting more comfortable and plays like never before. We also let him come to the Santa Photo shoot fundraiser. Sunny is awesome!

Sunny free of the cone