March 2013 Sanctuary Newsletter
Greetings!
Well, we are wondering where February went. Sure it is the shortest month of the year, but it sure feels like it just flew by. With March comes a lot of work for us at the sanctuary to get prepared for our visitor season on April 6th. Weather permitting of course.
All of the Yogie cats are doing well. Moses, the lion, just celebrated his 7th birthday on February 27th. He has turned into a magnificent animal. He looks like he may be a Barbary lion with his extra-long mane. We do have an aging population of animals and with that usually comes special health issues and needs. So far we have been fortunate not to have any major issues with our animals. Boudreaux, the mountain lion, does have a little arthritis that he is on medication for, but all in all the animals are doing really well.
Dancer the Kitten: If you remember there was an injured 10 week old kitten at Bossier City Animal Control that was going to be euthanized, but we rescued her. She lives at Yogie and Friends with Tim and she is doing very well. Her leg has healed nicely and she runs and plays with the other cats. She has received her vaccinations and is just waiting until she is old enough to be spayed. She has a few months to wait. Still, we are glad she is part of the Yogie domestic pets and has a huge place in all of our hearts.
Admissions/Gift Shop Building: For years we have been trying to get some volunteer help to make some repairs to our building. The floor was terrible. It was improperly installed and looked terrible. Even when we swept and mopped it, it still looked dirty and took away from how the entire building looked. Well, we finally decided to fix that problem. No money was taken from Yogie. I decided to purchase the materials myself. I can claim it on my taxes and Lowes had the flooring on sale at an amazing price. One of the exit doors was not properly framed and the bathroom had water damage from a leak. Well, that is all fixed now. It looks professional and is really welcoming. All that is left is the caulking and painting and a few minor touch ups. This will all be done before April 6th and we are excited for our visitors to see this.
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
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.
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.
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:
23 March 2013 11am-4pm Spring Bake Sale and Fundraiser
Petco, Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA
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
February 2013 Sanctuary Newsletter
Greetings Fans!
We can’t believe it’s already February. Where has the month gone? This means we will be getting the property ready for the new season opening scheduled for April 6th. Weather permitting of course.
The weather was a little cooler and wetter this year so we are hoping it will help us with getting some grass to grow and maybe less bugs. But, this is Louisiana and you just never know what can happen. We are just hoping it isn’t a brutally hot summer. Since the tigers have been jumping in their pools filled with rain water Tim decided we might as well bring the pools back up. So now all the pools are up and running and the tigers are jumping around and playing in them again. They know best what they want so we just followed their lead.
Domestic Animal Project (DAP): Yogie and Friends has a division that works with domestic animals. We do not take any of these animals on the Yogie property since we don’t have the facility to maintain them. Yet! Someday we will, but as of this time we work with fosters. We have 35 domestic cats and kittens throughout our foster network. Some are adoptable and some are not. We are also working the Trap-Neuter/Spay-Return (TNR) program without several neighborhoods between Bossier City and Frierson. We want to help reduce the feral cat population. There are so many people that hate cats, so we put our focus on helping them while at the same time helping with dogs. We have a great network of rescuers that we work with. We are working on our adoption program for these animals and hope to get the info out there very soon. Donations for DAP are needed since we do not take from the big cat rescue funds.
Dancer the Kitten: There was an injured kitten at Bossier City Animal Control that was going to be euthanized, but some people took on the task of sponsoring her to be pulled by a rescue. It could only be a rescue. Tim decided we should do it and give this cutie a chance at life. She was only about 10 weeks old when I went and took her to Yogie. It looks like she may have been caught in a fence and injured her left rear leg, ear, and had a streak of fur on her side missing. She also had a slight upper respiratory infection and that is a problem at an animal pound. Because of her leg we named her Dancer. She is doing very well. Her ear is healed, her infection is gone, fur growing back, and she is using her leg more. Fortunately there was no major damage to her leg. She is a sweetie and coming along nicely. We thank those who sponsored her to help with vet bills.
Special Thanks: We want to give a special thanks to 1-800-petmeds for a donation they recently sent us. We received some flea and tick medications to help us with our domestic animals.
Fundraisers: We have had several fundraisers throughout the year. Our ever so popular bake sales continue to be a success. We’ve tried a few new events that were not so successful, but tried and don’t regret giving them a shot. We have added a new fundraiser we hope you will try.
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
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.
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.
Recycle: We have a really successful recycling program thanks to our webmaster, Paige Bass. Paige works really hard at making this program work and is awesome at getting the word out. This helps the environment and the big cats when you recycle your printer cartridges. Check out the link on our website how to participate in our recycling program.
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:
23 March 2013 11am-4pm Spring Bake Sale and Fundraiser
Petco, Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA
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
January 2013 Sanctuary Newsletter
Happy 2013!
The holiday season is over and the New Year is in full swing at Yogie and Friends. This update is a bit late because we had to get a lot of end of year things done quickly.
2012 was year of mixed emotions. Two of our big cats crossed over the rainbow bridge. Our 28 year old lioness, Snagglepuss, died of natural causes on February 26th. She lived a long life and after 17 years living in a garage in Texas we are glad we gave her 10 good years of comfort and peaceful living for these final 10 years. Then on October 19th half of the dynamic duo, Robin, died. Robin had been part of a roadside zoo in Texas and he and his littermate, Batman, arrived at Yogie and Friends in poor shape. They were declawed and not well cared for. Robin had been ill and just did not respond to treatment. Then to top it off Tim’s Russian Blue housecat, Boris, died as a result of liver failure the day after Robin on October 20th. It had been a very difficult time for us all. Loss is a part of rescue, but it never gets easy. So we move on to continue caring and loving those who are left behind. We love all these great animals, big and small.
We have been working on upgrades to the cat pens and trying to get grass to grow, but the drought we’ve had the past three years and the cats trampling around has made it a very difficult task. We also hope to have some cat friendly plants added as well. It seems like the drought has eased some so maybe we will have better luck this spring. We are also trying to get the floor and bathroom repaired in the admissions building. At this point at the sanctuary it is more a matter of maintaining and improving what we feel we can do better.
Special Thanks: We want to thank all of our supporters, volunteers, and those who have been there for us over the years through good times and bad times. Thanks to Paige Bass for her hard work on both our awesome website and with our recycling program. She does a great job and we really appreciate her for all she does. Thank you to Kona Hawaiian Shaved Ice of Shreveport. Bill Lyons donates a percentage of his sales to Yogie and Friends and we appreciate his thoughtfulness. There are so many people who have made what we do possible and just want to tell them all thanks so much for your caring and helping. We really do appreciate you.
Finances: Finances are always tight for any non-profit, but it seems like it is a more difficult venture for animal groups. It takes a very special person to consider donating money or even time to animals. We are very grateful to those who continue to support us through the year and understand the sacrifice they make to help us. Thank you for your continued support.
Credit Cards: We made it easier for our friends to donate via credit cards. In the past we had a pretty antiquated process, the old fashioned knuckle buster. We had to run a carbon copy receipt over your card and call in the amount to get approval. Yes, it was old, but worked. We didn’t have any internet access to accept credit cards. Then late in the year we did get access to the internet, but it was still a little slow and if we lost our internet capability we couldn’t accept cards. These were also somewhat expensive. Each credit card company charges per swipe fees and the company that processes the card charges a monthly fee. Well in November we got the capability to accept cards at our events, which we could never do, and there is just a low, one-time, fee. No matter what card is used. We don’t have the monthly fee or different company card fees. It’s great. So now we have simplified. People often will donate via credit card on the spot and it is a great way to help. So, we have now modernized.
Fundraisers: We have had several fundraisers throughout the year. Our ever so popular bake sales continue to be a success. We’ve tried a few new events that were not so successful, but tried and don’t regret giving them a shot. We have added a new fundraiser we hope you will try.
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
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.
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.
Recycle: We have a really successful recycling program thanks to our webmaster, Paige Bass. Paige works really hard at making this program work and is awesome at getting the word out. This helps the environment and the big cats when you recycle your printer cartridges. Check out the link on our website how to participate in our recycling program.
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:
TBD (March) 11am-4pm Spring Bake Sale and Fundraiser at
Petco, Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA
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 at
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