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
April 2013 Sanctuary Newsletter
Spring has sprung!
Well at least it is supposed to be here. We’ve had some very odd (and dangerous) weather here lately, but hopefully it will not be raining for our opening day scheduled on April 6th. We are excited for our new visitor season. We hope lots of people come and see these amazing animals and how loved they are.
Our March bake sale was another success and we want to thank all those who came and supported us by baking, buying baked goods, donating, and just being an overall supporter of the sanctuary. This is another way for us to share information about the sanctuary and the animals we are caring for.
Clearance Sale: We have a really nice selection of Cardew Collectible Ceramic mugs, tea pots, and other items that will be on clearance this season. Many of the items have been discontinued and we want to offer them to our fans at a discounted price. We have endangered species items, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and Wizard of Oz items as well. We are trying to make room in the admissions building for Yogie and Friends unique items such as picture mugs and tee shirts of our own animals. Come on out and see the amazing selection we have. 100% of the proceeds go to help the big cats.
Trap-Neuter/Spay-Return (TNR): For those who are familiar with TNR you know this is one of the busier times of year. Spring is when many feral kittens are born. Feral cats have a place in the community. There are people who do not agree, but there will always be feral cats. If you can trap them and have them spayed or neutered and return them back to their colony they will usually live out their lives in the same area you found them and in relatively good health. Several of us are working with feral colonies and if you’d like to help us with this effort we can use your help. You can help with cash for us to pay for spay and neutering or just bringing us some cat food. We use dry food for the colonies and wet canned or canned tuna to place in the traps to entice them. If you are interested in helping this way we really appreciate it.
One of the goals we have for the sanctuary this season is landscaping in the animal habitats. We’ve had three years of drought, and unfortunately the forecast is not promising, and that has wreaked havoc on the grass. We are looking into getting sod and animal safe plants for the habitats. We want to make them as comfortable as possible for the animals.
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.
Facebook: Please LIKE us on Facebook. When you do you need to ADD TO INTERESTS LIST us in order to see our updates. When you do LIKE on us mouse over the LIKE, and there is a dropdown menu you will see. One of the menu items is ADD TO INTERESTS LIST. Add us and then create a list. We made ours ANIMAL RESCUES and all our posts show up now. Please do this to help us continue to get the word out about these great animals. It’s a good way for us to share our events too. Tell all your friends about us too and ask them to like on us.
Kroger Neighbor to Neighbor Donation Program: If you are a Kroger shopper in Texas or Louisiana, then we hope you will take the letter on our website with you the next time you shop and have the cashier scan the bar code and pair it with your Kroger Plus Card. Once you do this, then every time you shop you will be contributing to Yogie and Friends.
Upcoming Events:
6 April 2013 Noon-5pm Yogie Season Opening (Weather Permitting)
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