Day 1 with 91 voting days !!!! Get 91 friends voting today. They have
all new bigger and better animal pictures. I'm a zebra today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rikkis_refuge/4695579481/
Remember to tell me what YOU are!! Some of my friends have gotten
penguines, ladybugs and goats - all new since last contest!!!!
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_shelterchallenge_from_home_sidetabs
or http://bit.ly/bDLKJY or www.RikkisRefuge.org and click on the
$100,000 - No matter how you get there you'll want to enter Rikkis
Refuge in VA. That's it!! Click search, then vote and then identify
your animal of the day !!!!! The rules are once per computer, so you
can vote from home and from work and from your phone!!!!
Thanks to those of you on top of it, we're already at 78% of Virginia
and in the lead by far. We're 9th planet wide at 2% of all the votes -
vote vote vote - friends vote - family votes - tell every one at your
Monday morning meetings to vote!!! Let's prove we can be number one on
the planet!
I've got some of the happiest new ever!!!! Thanks to you for
supporting Gibson thru all his surgeries and thru a year and a half of
care --- he's totally cured !!!! He's now ready to start life as a
brand new happy kitty. He moved from confined quarters yesterday into
the 9th Life Center for occupational therapy and to get used to being a
cat again !!! And he's happy.
He's so happy he's Happy Dancing and can't stop!
Gibson !!! LIVE and in Catson doing the Happy Dance !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6cqvwXhUyw
After almost a year and a half of confinement, healing from traumatic
wounds, Gibson tastes freedom at last!
In February of 2009, Gibson was out for a stroll on a dark and starry
night. He stumbled onto a pile of garbage while looking for something
to eat. While digging thru the trash he got caught up in a monofilament
onion bag. It grabbed first one leg, and as he tried to struggle free,
it grabbed his other front leg and then wrapped around his neck. He
rolled and kicked and fought, and it only wound tighter. So tight he
could hardly walk. So tight he could hardly breathe. It was cutting
deeply into his armpits and across his chest. He thought the monster
would win and he'd die alone.
He was hungry, skinny, he'd been on the streets trying to survive for
awhile. He smelled tuna. Tuna? Tuna! There was a nearby trap where a
feral colony was undergoing TNR. Maybe the feral colony is why his
hoomans chose this place to dump him. It happens to house kitties a
lot. Their hoomans don't want them anymore and dump them where they see
other cats. But house kitties don't have street smarts, they don't
speak feral, and they often die when dumped.
But Gibson's story, though pretty dire now, was going to end on a very,
very happy note. It was just going to take another year and a half.
He drug himself to that tuna baited trap, hoping to have just one last
meal before this monster wrapped around him either strangled the life
out of him or cut deeply enough for him to bleed to death. WHAM ... he
was trapped. This only added to his fright. He rolled that trap, he
fought the monster wrapped around him, and now this giant metal monster.
Soon parts of the onion bag became entangled in the trap, causing it
to cut deeper and deeper under his arms and across his chest.
In the morning - I hope it was just the next morning - a hooman came to
check the traps and found a blood soaked badly damaged cat. He
certainly looked dead. As she stared in horror, he lifted his head
enough to hiss and let her know he was still alive. But certainly not a
patient for a Speuter Clinic. She took him to the local pound. Gibson
used his last strength to hiss and snarl and try to lash out at the
hoomans, who he didn't understand were now there to help him.
He had to be anesthetized before he could be untangled from the trap.
It took surgery to cut the strings of that onion bag out. Deep, deep
wounds under his armpits. Crisscrosses on his chest cut almost to the
ribs, over and over. Cuts between his fingers where he'd entangled his
paws trying to escape the onion bag. Thankfully the cuts on his neck
were not as deep, or he wouldn't be here today to tell his story. It
took hours of surgery to cut out all the string and stitch him back
together. The surgery didn't even begin to address his bashed nose,
swollen face, torn nails, where he'd slammed into the cage walls trying
to free himself.
In the morning when the staff arrived they found a frantic cat;
screaming, lashing out, howling, snarling and throwing himself against
the cage door. They realized they would not be able to care for him.
Wounds like this require frequent handling and care to heal properly.
He needed antibiotics and pain meds. When they tried to put the meds in
food, he slapped the bowl away. He was totally terrified. He must be
feral. And they needed the "feral people" over at Rikki's Refuge.
Soon Gibson was screaming and trying to tear out of our hospital cage.
It was so hard to hold him still enough to dress his wounds without
causing further damage or ripping out some of the hundreds of stitches
he had. But at Rikki's Refuge the hoomans do what ever they have to, to
save somebody's life. They get bit, they get scratched, and they are so
happy when they see a happy, healthy, healed patient.
He'd already ripped out some stitches under his arm before he got to
Rikki's Refuge. Soon the other armpit had a raw hole too. As he began
to heal, he began to calm down. A couple weeks went by and the hoomans
learned he wasn't a feral kitty afterall. He was a terribly frightened,
hurt, but friendly kitty. Someday he would purr again. And when that
day finally came, every hooman at Rikki's Refuge held him and sobbed
into his fur.
Weeks went by, then months. He had another surgery, then another. His
chest healed up. His neck healed up. The arms and feet healed. But
those dawg gone armpits were real problems. He'd have another surgery
to close them. And he'd stretch and rip it open. He had to be kept
confined in a small area where he couldn't climb, because climbing he
loved, and he'd reach way up and stretch his arms out full length, and
rip his delicate new skin.
Have you ever tried dressing the armpits of an angry kitty? It's not an
easy job! And bandages can't be left on. If they're tight enough to
hold, then when he'd move, they'd cut into his tender healing flesh.
It was a very long slow process. Three steps forward, one back. He was
in a cage or being held for almost a year before he was healed enough to
start getting about. Still, he had to stay in a relatively small area.
Now he began some normal stretching. And a tender spot would open up.
Physical therapy was started to keep the skin stretched out during the
final healing. At first that was painful since the scar tissue was so
tight. Eventually physical therapy time grew into a fun belly rubbing
stretching purring time.
And today, after almost a year and a half, Gibson knows freedom! He'll
be living in the 9th Live Assisted Living Section while he gets used to
doing normal kitty things again. He no longer needs physical therapy,
but he will be receiving occupational therapy!
Climbing the shelves was his first activity of choice!
For a year and a half, Gibson had not been allowed to climb! Now he can
explore the tippy tops of everything!!!
And thru it all, he never forgot the Happy Dance!!!
Here's Gibson, just a few minutes after his climb to the top !!!!
Translated and written by Vincent D. Cat, Official Spokes Kitty of
Rikki's Refuge, no-kill, life-care, multi-species, peaceful sanctuary.
www.RikkisRefuge.org If it warms your heart to know that kitties like
Gibson have a place to go, please make a donation so we can continue to
do our work. http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php
Thank you my HEROES, another life saved, because YOU cared !!
Love, Vincent
PS If you don't want your Daily Good New, just let me know! A couple of
you have said you only want Hairballs with out the Good News!! That's
ok! Just tell me. I'm here to make you happy, just tell me how! If
Good New don't make you happy - I could always start Bad News, but, as
you hoomans say, why reinvent the wheel - that's what you've got tv and
newspapers for !!!!!
--
Vincent D. Cat, Official Spokes Cat of Rikki's Refuge
Representing the Right to Life of the Differently Abled of every species.
JOIN THE RIKKI'S FAMILY
http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php
We're very honored to have been voted the Number One Animal Rescue in
Virginia.
Thank you, our supporters and friends, who made this possible. It took
over 50,000 votes! Thank you for your confidence and trust in the work
we do at Rikki's Refuge. We won't disappoint you!
I'd like to thank the sponsors of the contest; Pet Finders a wonderful
resource for helping us locating the perfect forever home for many of
our cats and dogs; and The Animal Rescue Site, where a click a day helps
feed shelter pets.
Not a Rikki's Family Member? For only $45 you can join for a year and
receive your electronic subscription to HAIRBALLS and paper subscription
to REFLECTIONS
DONATE NOW save a life today
http://www.rikkisrefuge.org/donate.php
RIKKI'S REFUGE a 367 acre, no-kill, all species peaceful sanctuary
supported solely by donations of kind and loving individuals, just like
you.
Your donations provide direct support. Only 4% of our income is spent on
fundraising and management, 96% is spent directly on the animals you
love. A financial statement is available upon written request from the
State Office of Consumer Affairs. All material in this e-mail is
copyrighted and cannot be used for any purpose other than to bring
awareness of Rikki's Refuge and the plight of unwanted animals to the
public. Any monetary gain attributed to this material must be donated
to Rikki's.
Phone: 540-854-0870
Address: PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960
Member: paypal.com (mail@rikkisrefuge.org),
CFC 77674, CVC 3163, PetsMart Charities #1377
Web page: http://www.rikkisrefuge.org
E-mail: Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org
