Surrendering a pet to Rikki's

If you have adopted a pet under a Rikki's Refuge contract please read and follow the information contained in our "Returning a Pet" link.

Stray and found animals

Stray, lost or found animals must be reported to the proper authorities. This is the law. It is very important that you call all county shelters in a 4 or 5 county radius of where you found this animal. Give them a full detailed description and tell them how to get in touch with you. Send them a picture. You will need to hold the animal or turn it into the shelter for the required stray period. This will probably be up to your local shelter. (See the list of Virginia county shelters which includes phone numbers and addresses).

Rikki's is not in a position to accept un-owned animals. We require proof of ownership --typically vet records. The state of Virginia feels there has been too many animals removed from their homes or not given the chance to be returned to their homes. The laws have become pretty strict in this department.

If you have properly reported an animal and you have been authorized to keep the animal beyond it's stray period and you have established legal ownership we may be able to help you with our re-homing program.

General intake

We are a no-kill, life-care facility mainly for farm animals and elderly, handicapped and unsocial but non-aggressive domestic animals. We also provide sanctuary to releasable, rehabilitated native wildlife. Most of our animals will live out their natural lives with us. This means openings are few and far between, especially for cats and dogs. Our waiting lists are very long.

Only animals who are not considered adoptable are admitted as residents to Rikki's Refuge. Handicapped, elderly, beyond average adoption age, certain social issues, feline leukemia and fiv, feral cats. Neither our facilities nor our staff are equipped to handle vicious dogs and our insurance has limitations on previous biters. Farm animals are on a case by case basis and in general we're more equipped for them than domestic animals.

We rely totally on donations. We have a limited number of housing slots available. We can only expand our population when there are both adequate ongoing funding and adequate housing. Being a no-kill facility where most of our residents will live out the remainder of their natural lives, space is at a serious premium. Our budget is very limited. Rarely are we able to cover the cost needed for initial and/or routine intake medical treatment of a new animal. In most cases, all needed medical work will have to be done before an animal is admitted. You will need to fax all medical records to us and our vet will study them to make recommendations on what else needs to be done.

Very often animals have high medical bills during their adjustment time. Some animals will try to starve themselves to death when they are separated from their loved ones. This can cost thousands of dollars and months of care to save their life. Even a well-adjusted animal often has medical problems in the first month. Moving causes stress and stress brings out problems. The animals are having to adjust to what amounts to a foreign country to them. You know how people often catch colds and intestinal problems and such when visiting a foreign country? Well it's the same for the animals.

An incoming animal usually costs a great deal of money. Once an animal is admitted we are making a commitment to care for them, no matter what, for the rest of their natural lives. As I'm sure you know, this really adds up. We can only increase our population when our monthly budget will allow us to add the housing, food and routine care for another animal. But the unexpected happens. Eventually old age will come and bring higher medical bills. For these reasons incoming animals will usually need to have an endowment for their future care. The size of the endowment will depend on a number of issues and usually begins at $1,000.

We have a Scholarship Program which can be used to help with an endowment for people in serious financial need. To apply you will have to provide a financial statement and a letter of explanation. It will be taken into consideration and we will help in cases where there is truly a need and when we have funds in the program.

If you feel that your animal belongs in our resident program we strongly urge you to come for a visit to see our facilities. If you cannot make a scheduled tour we may be able to work in something else, but we are very short-staffed and this can be very difficult.

Once you feel this is the appropriate environment for your animal we will review the medical records and set the required endowment. Moving an animal is very serious business. Imagine how you'd feel to be moved away from all your friends and family and everybody you've ever known and loved. Please make your decision very carefully.

FIV and FELUK cats

We do have both an FIV and a Feline Leukemia cat house.

When we get a call about a FIV/FELV positive at the first question we ask is, "What test was used?" Many people are told that if the quick test run in the vet's office is positive they have a positive. In fact this is not true.

This is just a screening test and is NOT a diagnostic test. It is called Snap, Combo or Eliza. We cannot even consider admitting a cat that has not had the complete diagnostic testing done.

You will find roughly a 60% false positive with the screening test. If you got a positive FIV, you need to run the Western Blot test. If you got a positive Leukemia you need to run the IFA test. Your vet will draw the blood but cannot do this test in their office. The blood will have to be sent out to a lab and the results will take a couple days. We'll need a copy of this test before we can proceed further with possible intake. Please get this test(s) done immediately and contact us if you still have a positive.