I’m Vincent D. Cat and here to make you happy! You are HEROES! You work hard every day and you deserve to smile every day! Those of you working to save us animals hear so very many very sad things. And there’s lots of very glad things too and that’s what we talk about here! All pawsitive all the time! I want my friends to be happy and smile and know there’s a lot of good - including YOU - in this world!! Be kind and pass it on! Please send me your Good New and Fun Stuff to share, personal or global. Let’s keep it fun and interactive!! After all, if we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane! Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org
My Favorite Quote, Today
Psychologists now recognize that the need in some people to have a dozen cats is really a sublimated desire to have two dozen cats. ---Robert Brault
The Snow Stopped ... YIPPEEEEE
We only got about two inches of snow!!! Lucky lucky. Sean didn’t make it in so we were short staffed. Katarina worked all day yesterday to help everybody. She was the only volunteer out yesterday. It got really cold last night and very windy.
Ivory the sheep is doing really well and is in the small livestock pen attached to the hospital now. She’s much happier to be outside. She’s still a little weak on her legs but getting up and down find on her own and eating well. Her friend Ebony is staying with her. When Ebony came in the summer she was all black. Her long wool grew in white!!! You can still see her black face and legs.
We were worried about Ivory in the cold last night. What is she took a walk and fell and couldn’t get up and get back into a protected house? So me and mom kept getting up to check on her. I’m glad she did well all night and didn’t fall down cus mom and me would have had one heck of a time getting her up - she weighs more than us put together!!!
It’s really windy and though the thermometer says it’s warmer out there - ABOVE freezing - it still feels freezing cold. It’s almost 40 and it’s real sunny and the ice and snow is melting into puddles. The predictions are really nice and it’s keeping on warming up and by time for the Nature Hike on Saturday, January First - it should be really nice and warm.
Are you coming on the nature hike? Are you scared of bigfoot lurking in the woods? He’s really big !!!!
Mary is here helping us in the office today. She went to the post office and brought lots and lots of big boxes. Ohhh I’m gonna have fun opening them later on...... But mom says I have to get all my work done first. If you ask me this ought to be her work. But I gotta do what she says so she’ll keep those opposable thumbs cranking and opening the cans!!! I hope somebody donated an electric can opener - I think I might be able to figure that out. Then we could eliminate hoomans. Oh, well maybe not. Somebody has to do the litter boxes!!
Did you know?
In the United States 43% of people aged 75 and over are reported to volunteer!!! That just goes to show - you DO get wiser !!!! Reach out and help somebody today!!! You don’t have to wait till you’re 75 either - get started today! Share a little bit of your time and love.
Before he became a home-repair guru on U.S. television, Bob Vila was a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama.
On the Twenty-seventh Day of Christmas,
look what came to Rikki’s,
twenty seven versatile volunteers,
twenty six dogs a drooling,
twenty five delightful donors,
twenty four plump pigs a plundering,
twenty three goats a butting,
twenty two sheep in need of sheering,
twenty one chickens a cackling,
twenty puppies a pooping,
nineteen rebellious roosters,
eighteen litter challenged kitties,
seventeen emus escaping,
sixteen dangerous ducklings,
fifteen peaceful pigeons,
fourteen peacocks plotting,
thirteen humans helping,
twelve temperamental turkeys,
eleven pouting pussies,
ten crotchety creaking canines,
nine grumpy geese,
eight kicking kittens,
seven guinea fowl freeloading,
six lizards a lazing,
five guinea pigs a gnawing,
four elderly equines,
three burly bossy bovines,
two rabbits a mating,
and a chukar in a cherry tree.
See all the pictures
In the Land ....
A Real Good Samaritan
From BBC Mobile News Magazine
One act of kindness that befell British writer Bernard Hare in 1982 changed him profoundly. Then a student living just north of London, he tells the story to inspire troubled young people to help deal with their disrupted lives.
The police called at my student hovel early evening, but I didn't answer as I thought they'd come to evict me. I hadn't paid my rent in months.
But then I got to thinking: my mum hadn't been too good and what if it was something about her?
We had no phone in the hovel and mobiles hadn't been invented yet, so I had to nip down the phone box.
I rang home to Leeds to find my mother was in hospital and not expected to survive the night. "Get home, son," my dad said.
I got to the railway station to find I'd missed the last train. A train was going as far as Peterborough, but I would miss the connecting Leeds train by twenty minutes.
I bought a ticket home and got on anyway. I was a struggling student and didn't have the money for a taxi the whole way, but I had a screwdriver in my pocket and my bunch of skeleton keys.
I was so desperate to get home that I planned to nick a car in Peterborough, hitch hike, steal some money, something, anything. I just knew from my dad's tone of voice that my mother was going to die that night and I intended to get home if it killed me.
"Tickets, please," I heard, as I stared blankly out of the window at the passing darkness. I fumbled for my ticket and gave it to the guard when he approached. He stamped it, but then just stood there looking at me. I'd been crying, had red eyes and must have looked a fright.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Course I'm okay," I said. "Why wouldn't I be? And what's it got to do with you in any case?"
"You look awful," he said. "Is there anything I can do?"
"You could get lost and mind your own business," I said. "That'd be a big help." I wasn't in the mood for talking.
He was only a little bloke and he must have read the danger signals in my body language and tone of voice, but he sat down opposite me anyway and continued to engage me.
"If there's a problem, I'm here to help. That's what I'm paid for."
I was a big bloke in my prime, so I thought for a second about physically sending him on his way, but somehow it didn't seem appropriate. He wasn't really doing much wrong. I was going through all the stages of grief at once: denial, anger, guilt, withdrawal, everything but acceptance. I was a bubbling cauldron of emotion and he had placed himself in my line of fire.
The only other thing I could think of to get rid of him was to tell him my story.
"Look, my mum's in hospital, dying, she won't survive the night, I'm going to miss the connection to Leeds at Peterborough, I'm not sure how I'm going to get home.
"It's tonight or never, I won't get another chance, I'm a bit upset, I don't really feel like talking, I'd be grateful if you'd leave me alone. Okay?"
"Okay," he said, finally getting up. "Sorry to hear that, son. I'll leave you alone then. Hope you make it home in time." Then he wandered off down the carriage back the way he came.
I continued to look out of the window at the dark. Ten minutes later, he was back at the side of my table. Oh no, I thought, here we go again. This time I really am going to rag him down the train.
He touched my arm. "Listen, when we get to Peterborough, shoot straight over to Platform One as quick as you like. The Leeds train'll be there."
I looked at him dumbfounded. It wasn't really registering. "Come again," I said, stupidly. "What do you mean? Is it late, or something?"
"No, it isn't late," he said, defensively, as if he really cared whether trains were late or not. "No, I've just radioed Peterborough. They're going to hold the train up for you. As soon as you get on, it goes.
"Everyone will be complaining about how late it is, but let's not worry about that on this occasion. You'll get home and that's the main thing. Good luck and God bless."
Then he was off down the train again. "Tickets, please. Any more tickets now?"
I suddenly realized what a top-class, fully-fledged doilem I was and chased him down the train. I wanted to give him all the money from my wallet, my driver's license, my keys, but I knew he would be offended.
I caught him up and grabbed his arm. "Oh, er, I just wanted to…" I was suddenly speechless. "I, erm…"
"It's okay," he said. "Not a problem." He had a warm smile on his face and true compassion in his eyes. He was a good man for its own sake and required nothing in return.
"I wish I had some way to thank you," I said. "I appreciate what you've done."
"Not a problem," he said again. "If you feel the need to thank me, the next time you see someone in trouble, you help them out. That will pay me back amply.
"Tell them to pay you back the same way and soon the world will be a better place."
I was at my mother's side when she died in the early hours of the morning. Even now, I can't think of her without remembering the Good Conductor on that late-night train to Peterborough and, to this day, I won't hear a bad word said about British Rail.
My meeting with the Good Conductor changed me from a selfish, potentially violent hedonist into a decent human being, but it took time.
"I've paid him back a thousand times since then," I tell the young people I work with, "and I'll keep on doing so till the day I die. You don't owe me nothing. Nothing at all."
"And if you think you do, I'd give you the same advice the Good Conductor gave me. Pass it down the line."
Has a stranger ever done you a good turn? Send us your stories and we'll publish a selection in the coming days.
Look at this Beautiful Horse
for sale on e-bay.
Don’t forget to check out the e-bay items for sale benefiting Rikki’s from time to time.
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Bill Clinton - Chooses a Vegan Lifestyle
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I think he should come volunteer at Rikki’s, what do you think?
Dog with 1,000 word Vocabulary
Ice Sculpture Festival
Did you go on a trip?
Share your exciting holiday travels with us! I didn’t get to travel and I want to hear all about yours!!! Add them to the comments in the blog or send to me Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org
I Love YOU very very much!!!
And LOOK !!!! 59% of the way there. I think we just might make our Double Your Donations fundraising challenge!!!! Only four more days to go - COUNT DOWN - will we make it??? YOU can help make it happen!!!
Count down for TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS for 2010 only FOUR more days to feed us instead of Uncle Sam !!!!!
Love,
Vincent
PS You tell me what you want! Email me at Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org with instructions to change your subscription: additions, deletions or modifications! Subscriptions: Vincent’s VIPs - up to the second alerts about issues at Rikki’s Refuge for those who care and want to be intimately involved. Scheduled as needed. Good Morning Good News - a little something to get you going in the mornings, for those of you who want to keep smiling with us! Scheduled daily. Hairballs - so you know what’s coming up at Rikki’s! Scheduled weekly.
Rikki's Refuge, supported solely by private donations, houses over 1200 animals of 22 species. On line at http://bit.ly/Give-a-gift-to-Rikkis Checks, money orders, cash, items at Rikki's Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960
Rikki's Refuge is owned and operated by Life Unlimited of Virginia, Inc., an IRS 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Virginia Corporation, tax-id 54-1911042. Combined Federal Campaigns #77674, Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign #3163, PetsMart Charities #1377. A financial statement is available upon written request from the State Office of Consumer Affairs.
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