Yogie and FriendsFIV+ Cats

Sep 8th September 2016 Newsletter

Greetings!

It certainly seems that this year is moving past us quickly!

We have been having a great deal of rain here in Louisiana and we have seen many people lose homes, and sadly, lives. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those heavily impacted by this extreme weather. We have not been impacted by the flooding this time in Northwest, Louisiana. Yes, we have been really wet here, but all is well and other than trying to keep up with the mowing we are fine here.

Taz: Taz, our 17 year old bobcat, had his vet visit on the 31^st and he is in excellent health! Our veterinarian said he has some beautiful teeth. Taz receives a natural diet with the bones he needs to keep those teeth healthy. His excellent health report is a testament to the great care he receives at Yogie and Friends.

T.B.Yopp Jr. Animal Facility: Grand Cane, Louisiana is home to a very small animal control facility called the T.B.Yopp Jr. Animal Facility. It is currently run under the Desoto Parish Animal Control. It was built as a no-kill facility, but sadly it is high kill. We are trying to help them change this. There is a Facebook page under Friends of Desoto Parish Animal Control. Right now one person, Cora Gardner, has taken it upon herself to take some amazing photos and promote this shelter. As a result they have had more adoptions. Sadly though, still far too many are being euthanized. They are being euthanized for space or other things that should NOT be happening. You can help make a difference with this very small, but nice, shelter and help save more animals. Cats and kittens are at extremely high risk here. Please check them out and volunteer if you can so we can help save more lives. Yogie and Friends is focusing on the cats and kittens since we have the experience to offer.

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

New Buildings: We really need a couple of new buildings to be more self-supportive on site. In other words if we can do all of our non-emergency vet visits on site it would be less stressful to our animals needing vet care. We already purchased hold kennels and an exam table from a veterinarian who retired and closed her practice. Now we would like to set up a small clinic on the premises. Also, we are looking to purchase at least one, if not two, larger buildings to give our current residents more room and plan for the future needs of the sanctuary. Right now the buildings we are looking at purchasing from Gemco will cost approximately $8000 total. Then there will be installing electric, water, insulation, drywall, and the typical things to make it what it needs to be. It’s really not as difficult to do and that’s the beauty of the Gemco buildings. We considered getting them already finished, but that doubles the cost when we have the skills to do so ourselves. Our military discounts help with the materials at places such as Lowe’s or Home Depot. We are very good stewards of our donations.

Volunteers: We really 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. Now that we are not housing big cats, our volunteers do not have to be 18 or older. However, we do need you to have dependable transportation to get yourself to the sanctuary to work if you volunteer. Since we currently do not have a landline at the facility (this saves us a great deal of money) you can contact us via email at yogieandfriends@hotmail.com and our volunteer coordinator will call you as soon as possible.

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: 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.

WISH LIST: We are in desperate need of 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 this is why 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.

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.

Sponsors Needed:

Please note that some cats may be sponsored by more than one person, 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:

Petey
Gatsby
Paisley
Sunny
VooDoo
Frazier
Bubba
King
Dotsey
Bruno
Pippin

Non-Positive Cats:

We are currently fostering eight cats for two people who lost their homes due to circumstances beyond their control. We hope they get to be reunited soon with their owners.

You can also mail your donations to us at:

Yogie and Friends
128 Fob Lane
Frierson, LA 71027

If you wish to make a donation 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 any 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:

10 Sept 2016            11am – 4 pm          Fall Bake Sale and Fundraiser

                                                                        Petco, 6596 Youree Drive, Shreveport

2 Oct 2016                2 – 6pm                   2^nd Annual Paws in Paradise

                                                                        Margaritaville Casino

                                                                        Bossier City, Louisiana

29 Oct 2016              11am – 4pm          Eat a (Hot) Dog, Save a Cat

                                                                        Dunkin Donuts

                                                                        Corner of Youree Drive and Southfield, Shreveport

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!

Aug 2nd August 2016 Newsletter

Greetings Yogie Fans!

We begin our newsletter with yet another sad announcement. 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 were able to 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.

Putty Tat

We still have four lions (Batman, Yogie, Boo Boo, and Moses), one tiger (Gomez), and one black leopard (Tigger), being boarded in Oklahoma. They are all doing very well.

We want to welcome Bruno to the sanctuary. We were contacted by a mutual friend at the Central Louisiana Humane Society down around Alexandria, Louisiana about this gorgeous boy. At first we were told he was feline leukemia positive and when we went to pick him up and saw how big and healthy he looked we questioned the diagnosis and saw that his paperwork said he is actually FIV positive. For some reason the leukemia cats don’t always do as well so we were happier that he was FIV positive and NOT feline leukemia. Bruno looks like a ragdoll cat. He is beautiful and very affectionate. So, we welcome Bruno to the fold.

Bella Nonnas Fundraiser: Our fundraiser at Bella Nonnas Olive Oil and Vinegar tasting bar is this coming Saturday. We fell in love with this place and have learned so many things about the health benefits of good, quality, olive oil and balsamic vinegars. We hope you will get to join us between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday, 6 August 2016. We have a lot of fun. And there will be lots of food and wine to pair the flavors and great ways for you to use these products. We will also have some cool Yogie and Friends merchandise as well as several fun raffles. We love getting a chance to see our friends during these events. We hope to see you there. Yogie and Friends will receive a portion of the sales during this time.

New Cat Building: We are working on purchasing another, much larger, building, for our non-FIV/FeLV cats. Right now the FIV/FeLV is a large enough building to accommodate the cats we have, and maybe a few more at a later date. We want the building to be large enough to put the quarantine cages and veterinarian table in another room. We have been looking at the Gemco metal buildings or other possibilities. We like portable buildings so that in the eventual opportunity arises where we can move we can take them with us. We are looking for grants and donations to help with this next endeavor.

Dragon Pen Raffle: We have a gorgeous, handcrafted, dragon designed pen we are going to raffle off during the Bella Nonnas fundraiser. Tickets are a $5 donation. Tickets are also currently available at the Dunkin Donuts on Youree and Southfield in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Geek’d Con: Yogie and Friends will be sharing a space for one day at Geek’d Con on Sunday, 20 August 2016. We will have our Yogie information and hopefully some of our cool merchandise. It was a little last minute invite and we are working fast to make it awesome! We’d love to do the entire three days, but not sure we can pull it off. Stop by and say hello.

Pampered Chef On-Line Fundraiser: Several people asked about purchasing Pampered Chef products after we completed our last fundraiser and asked if they could still purchase items. So, our host has set up another on-line fundraiser and it’s currently on our Facebook page. The fundraiser is going until 8 August 2016 if you want to get stuff now. We receive a percentage of the sales and they have some great items.

VOLUNTEERS: We really 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. Now that we are not housing big cats, our volunteers do not have to be 18 or older. However, we do need you to have dependable transportation to get yourself to the sanctuary to work if you volunteer. Since we currently do not have a landline at the facility (this saves us a great deal of money) you can contact us via email at yogieandfriends@hotmail.com and our volunteer coordinator will call you as soon as possible.

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: 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.

LOUISIANA AND TEXAS KROGER SHOPPERS: If you have not already done so, please don’t forget to get your Kroger Community Rewards linked 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

WISH LIST: We are in desperate need of 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 this is why 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.

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.

Sponsors Needed:

Please note that some cats may be sponsored by more than one person, 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:

Petey
Gatsby
Paisley
Sunny
VooDoo
Frazier
Bubba
King
Dotsey
Bruno
Pippin

Non-Positive Cats:

Hope              Elsa
Kristoff          Barney
Anna              Duncan
Sarah             Muff
Blackie          Penelope
Luna              Duckie
Lucy               Smudge
Squeak          Smokey
Bandit           Snowball
Natasha        Boo
Max               Blackie (2)
Miss Kitty

We are currently fostering eight cats for two people who lost their homes due to circumstances beyond their control. We hope they get to be reunited soon with their owners.

You can also mail your donations to us at:

Yogie and Friends
128 Fob Lane
Frierson, LA 71027

If you wish to make a donation 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 any 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:

6 Aug 2016 1-6 pm            Olive Oil & Vinegar Tasting and Mini Bake Sale
Bella Nonna’s Olive Oil & Vinegar – Tasting Bar
1409 E. 70 th St., Suite 107
Shreveport, LA

20 Aug 2016 10a.m. – 7p.m. Geek’d Con
Shreveport Convention Center

10 Sept 2016 11am – 4 pm Fall Bake Sale and Fundraiser
Petco, 6596 Youree Drive, Shreveport

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!