Good Morning Good News !!!! October 4, 2011

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

Yesterday

was a scary, anticipating, exhilarating, crazy kind of day.

First off - did you know it was the opening day to start voting in the New Shelter Challenge Contest?

YES you can vote every day now and help us win $1,000 to help pay for our doc bills! 

Be sure to click on http://tinyurl.com/VoteRikkis and enter Rikkis Refuge in VA in the USA.

Vote from every computer you have and tell all your friends to vote!!!  It’s really important.  If we can win the mostest votes in a week, then we can all start voting for someone else and help them too.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every week we helped a rescue win $1,000?  We can do that too!!!!  Each of us is only allowed one $1,000 each voting period.  But we can all work together to win for lots of animals !!!

So stop right now and click and VOTE http://tinyurl.com/VoteRikkis and enter Rikkis Refuge in VA in the USA.

KiKi

Friday my bestest sister dawgie-pal KiKi was diagnosed with a terrible, terrible tumor.  Huge, and bad, and all over.  Her condition made her ineligible for surgery, she just could not have made it thru.  We worried all weekend that her time was very limited with us.  Oh we were scared.  And all our good friends were praying and sending good thoughts.

Monday we went to see Doc again and things were looking better.  At least lab wise.  And it looked like KiKi could have the surgery.  It was still scary.  Very scary.   KiKi was going to need blood, lots of blood. 

I volunteered to give her blood, and so did all the hoomans at Rikki’s - but our Doc said, “I gotta have dawgie blood, please.” 

And so we rushed back to the refuge in the Trooper.  I’d driven the Trooper over instead of mom’s truck so KiKi had a big place to lie down in the back.  In the pick up truck, big dawgies have to be in crates in the back cuz only small carriers will fit in the cab and mom says it’d be way dangerous for a doggy to jump on my lap while I was trying to drive.  Then we could all get killed in an accident and that would be really bad. 

But uh oh .... part way back to the refuge, right in the middle of a busy intersection in Culpeper, I couldn’t get the trooper to shift into gear.  It’s really had to keep track of all those peddles and shift things and the steering wheel and all that stuff all at the same time.  And to see out the window to know where you’re going and make sure nobody is in the way.  Wow that’s hard!  Especially the peddle part, I mean with just one leg and all you know.

And it just wouldn’t shift down as I made this turn  ...  oh my gosh I was scared ....  I’m in neutral and I’m rounding the corner and then it won’t go in no gear and the cars behind me is getting closer and closer and I’m meroooowing my head off .....  help ... don’t hit me .... what do I do??  MOMMEY, help, what do I do?  Mom said be calm, and she grabbed the wheel and got us to the shoulder of the road.   Pweeeee I was so scared I had to get out and pee right there in the dirt.  Mom said good thing I made it out, she’d a been really annoyed at having to drive the trooper that I broke (it’s all MY fault now) while sitting on a wet seat.  Oh poo on you, hooman!

So mom played around and played around and boy did she have trouble getting it into gear too.  Like the clutch peddle goes down but like it isn’t doing anything.  She never could get it into first, but she managed with two paws to force it into 2^nd and get us going.  She and me was praying real hard that it’d shift into 3^rd, and it did.  Yeahh!!!!!   She could go up the gears to 5^th ok, but coming down was way hard.  And getting into 2^nd (she finally forgot about ever trying 1^st again) and into reverse was real real hard, real two hand jamming hard.

We made it back to the refuge.

We talked to the dawgies about who was gonna be a blood donor for KiKi.  Duke stepped up and said I’m the Spokes Dawggie, I’ll do it.  But mom said oh no Duke, you’re thin and you have medical issues that I’m worried would get worse if you went thru the stress of giving blood, you’re a good kind considerate doggie, but I don’t think this is the job for you.

Beauty volunteered but said she wasn’t sure she could do it without biting the nice doctor. 

We sure didn’t want the nice doctors hands bit all off cuz she needed them to do the operation.

Mom and Lena decided Summer is the biggest, strongest, youngest and had no medical problems, so she should be the one who should go to the hospital and save KiKi. 

Summer can’t ride in the back of the Trooper suv on a blanket like KiKi can.  Cuz Summer would jump over the seat and right into mom’s lap and make her wreck and that might kill us all.  I didn’t want to get killed so we figured we better get the dreaded crate out. 

It was raining and cold and mom didn’t feel right asking Summer to ride in the back of the pick up, so the crate went in the Trooper.  Even though the clutch was such a problem, mom just had no other way to do it.  This was an emergency and it had to be done right now.  No time to call people for HELP. 

Summer howled that beautiful blue tick howl all the way, directing mom on how to go, and especially barking loud enough to drown out the sounds of the bad things mom was uttering while she tried to shift the trooper.  She just kept praying to not hit lights and corners and things that made her need 2^nd.  She said her arm was about to fall off when she got there.

We was too scared to drive all the way to the refuge and then all the way back to the doc in Culpeper to pick up dawgies after surgery, so we went to the library in Culpeper and worked there on the puter till time to go back to doc.

Doc Vargas got to work and it as such a big job Doc Kellum helped too.  After a while the doc called mom and said, this is bad, this is so bad, it’s all over, it’s worse than I thought, and it’s going to take longer than I thought, and it’s really hard surgery for KiKi.  I’m doing all I can, and I’ll work as long as I have to.  I’m just afraid .....  Please get everybody praying.  And thank you for praying and praying and sending good thoughts and good energy and reiki and all the good things you wonderful friend do.

Mom and me sat on pins and needles waiting for that call.  Oh no, dreading the call.  Two hours later when the phone rang and it said Culpeper Animal Hospital, mom was already in tears when she answered, she was so scared of the news.  And the nice lady said, Doc just wanted me to call and tell you KiKi is out of surgery and you can come see her!!!  Oh joy, joy, joy !!!!

You have no idea how relieved we were!!!!!   And off to the hospital we went, forcing the trooper into gear.

The plan had been to visit with KiKi but keep her hospitalized over night, and to bring Summer home.  As KiKi was coming out of anesthesia she was really fighting it and she always freaks out about being in a cage.  So Doc decided it was better for KiKi to go home, where she could sleep in a small blocked off part of a room she was used to and where she was used to so she wouldn’t thrash and be upset.   

There wasn’t room to put Summer’s crate in the trooper and to get KiKi in.  And there was no way Summer - that crazy girl - would be calm enough to ride with KiKi.  No only would Summer jump on mom while she was driving and get us all killed, she’d jump up and down on KiKi too and that would be really bad for her dozens of staples and her very sore belly.  So poor Summer got left behind.  She’d have to come home in the morning, cuz it was too late to make a second trip to the refuge and back to the hospital.

Lena and Wayne stayed to help get KiKi out of the trooper -- and it was a long wait as mom kept working real hard to jam the gearshift into second and it got worse and worse .......  We kept praying, get us home with KiKi and then we’ll tow it off to get fixed if we have to.  Just please, please get us home.  And finally we were there !!!!!  

Lena and Wayne fixed up a real nice soft bed for KiKi and got her all settled in.  Lena stayed even longer to help getting her ready for the night and making sure all would be well.

About 9 pm Lena loaded up her homework - the eight doggies that go home with her every night - and headed out.  Mom crawled, dog tired, over to the office to get to work.  And found that Shadow had puked all over the place, not once, not twice, but over and over and over.  And Taco, leaky butt, had spent the day in the office on mom’s chair.  Mom was standing there looking about in despair and the phone rang.  It was Lena saying, “Uh Oh Snoop locked the doors on me when I got out to open the gate - I’ve called AAA - they’ll be along shortly to get me back in the car.”  The toasty warm car, cuz Lena warms it up before loading up the dogs.  Poor Lena was standing out in the cold, 48 degrees Fahrenheit.  COLD and without her jacket cuz she just jumped out to open the gate.  When Snoop just jumped up and hit the button and SNAP all the doors were locked !   See, it’s always the dawg who does it!

So Mom figured she’d grab her truck keys and go the half mile up to the gate and let Lena wait in her truck with the heat on ...... but where were mom’s keys ??????    

She looked and looked and looked and looked.  She even looked in the window of the truck to see if she’d accidentally left them there when she moved stuff out of the trooper back to the truck.  No keys.  Not inside.  Not in the office.  Not in the RV.  Not in her coat pocket.  No where.  She looked again.  And again.  Poor Lena was standing out there in the cold, and she was tired after a long, long day at work, long like 16 hours already.  Poor Lena.

Mom thought about taking the trooper but figured it’d get stick right in the driveway and she’d never be able to move it and then nobody could every come to work or volunteer again.  So she kept searching for her keys.  Feeling like a crazy old lady.  Not even a crazy cat lady this time!

Then she remembered the spare key and got it out.  Well she was pretty sure that was it.  And she smiled and went to the truck.  No luck, it wouldn’t open the door.  Oh poo, poo and double poo.  She searched around some more.  None of the other keys she could find worked either.  She was sure that first set of keys worked, and then remembering the truck keys haven’t been working good, but the beeper thing on the real key chain was, she decided to try those spare keys again.  No luck.  But the little one did work on the back of the truck.  So Hmmmm these were the right keys.  And now mom could sit in the cold bed of the truck, but that wasn’t going to help thaw Lena any.

So mom got the wd40 and zapped the keyhole and then with a bunch of fenaggeling got the doors open!!!   She drove up to the gate and while moving stuff off the seat for Lena to jump in and warm up, found her set of keys!!!  Ding a ling - she had locked her own keys in her own truck.  This is why hoomans just shouldn’t be given much responsibility.

About 10 o’clock the AAA man rolled up, with a headlight out (guess he needs to call AAA for help) and he approached the car.  He was scared of Snoop a growling and a snarling thru the glass.  Lena convinced him there was nothing Snoop could do thru the glass so he went to work.  He used a blood pressure cuff to jam in the crack on the door and pump it up to open it a little.  I looked at him and said, “Silly hooman, you’ll never fit in thru that crack!  Even I couldn’t fit in there!” 

And then he took out a mini rabies pole and reached in the little crack and POP the door opened just like that !!!

And then finally - Lena got to go home.  For a few hours anyway.  She came back at 4:30 this morning so mom could get some sleep. 

And Summer got to come home first thing this morning.  She was singing all the way !!!!   I heard that some people like to put woofers in their car so they sound real loud when they stop at traffic lights !!!!   Well that’s just the way we sounded all the way home with Summer in the truck !!!

KiKi is eating a little now and sitting up some.  She’s on a lot of pain meds so she’s sleeping a lot too.

Beauty is real worried about her friend and wants KiKi to get well real quick so she can come back out to play at night.

Mike Speaking

Oh, Hi there!!  Thank you, Vincent, for letting me have a word.  Seeing as how YOU always try to HOG everything!

Hi folks!!  Thanks so much for the help you’ve given me so far to pay off my docs for my broken leg.  17 of you have contributed almost half of what I owe.  Any chance there’s another 17 of you out there who’d like to get me out of this crate?

See the crate I’m in?  It’s a DOG crate!  Not a GOAT crate, a DOG crate.  I think this is terribly unjust.  I’m only allowed a few minutes out on my feet till this cast is off.  My next appointment is October 18^th, and if I’m lucky then, I’ll get this cast off. 

But I can’t even go to my appointment till I’ve paid off what I own now.  Please help me.

I promise, as soon as I’ve paid my bill I’ll start to help my sisfur KiKi pay hers ..... even if she does bark at me.

Thank you, Mike

Fred’s Getting Ready

for the Haunted Forest!

Would you like to help us scare everybody????    We’re looking for volunteers!!!

http://rikkisrefuge.blogspot.com/2011/09/dare-you.html

A BIG hug to everyone of YOU !!!

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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