Good Morning Good News, October 13, 2012

A GREAT BIG WHOOP

of joy and thanks to our voters in the Animal Rescue Site's Shelter Challenge !!!!! Rikki's won Virginia in the latest round and that means we got a check for $1,000!!!!

All cuz YOU clicked !!!! yup, your daily clicks in the Shelter Challenge wins BIG for Rikki's. THANK YOU.

WIN VINCENT’S SEAL OF APPROVAL

vote EVERYDAY in the NEW Shelter Challenge.

It started on Monday and we’ve got to catch up!!!

IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU EVERY DAY !!!!!

Hurry Hurry - Together we are WINNERS !!!

CLICK: http://tinyurl.com/VoteRikkis

Enter: Rikkis Refuge in VA in the USA

Search, Vote, and enter the encrypted word

NO apps, NO email, NO data collected, FREE

spread the word to all your friends and collegues

HELP RIKKI’S WIN

Rikki’s Refuge needs YOU at the

Stafford County Fair

WHY ?

Volunteers, like YOU, sell our items,

raise money and

help the world learn about Rikki’s Refuge

Join Rikki’s Refuge at the Stafford County Fair !!!!

Friday, October 19^th      5 pm - 10 pm

Saturday, October 20^th 10 am - 10 pm

Sunday, October 21^th   10 pm -   6 pm

Popcorn - Cotton Candy - Rides

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED  - no experience needed, on-site training available !!!  AND you’ll be able to help at other fairs and festivals !!!  Nice CLEAN fun, no litterboxes, no mucking !!!  Set your own hours !!!!  Work as little as two hours or as long as three days !!!

MORE DETAILS - CLICK !!! to learn ALL about it !!!! 
YES COUNT ME IN: lkarnay@yahoo.com

                                    Talk to Laurie about volunteering at events

 

HELP TACO DRIVE HIS NEW TOYOTA HOME !!!!

YOU won it for Taco !!!  Now come help him drive home !!!

The delivery date has been set and YOU are invited to the party !!!!  OCTOBER 18 at 1 pm in Fredericksburg at Rosner Toyota. 

Taco wants YOU there!!!  Can you come?  Please let me know: Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org 

If YOU can’t be there would you send your thanks to Toyota?  Please send me a pic of you or your pet with a hand drawn sign or card (just write on a piece of paper, that’s fine!) saying THANK YOU TOYOTA -- we want to print out a hundred thank yous to hang on a banner.  If you can’t do that, got a pic you can send me of just you and/or your pet?  I’ll add in the thank you.  You can send me the file or a link on line.  Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org

VINCENT WELCOMS DAVID HANYCH TO RAINBOW BRIDGE

READ more about David and his Memorial Fund.

WHY WE HATE TARPS

These photos weren’t taken at Rikki’s, they’re stock off the web.  BUT this kind of danger lurks anywhere where an animal can get to a tarp.  Chewing, scratching, deterioration from sunlight or wear and tear.  It all adds up to long strings of thin plastic.

And it’s fun to chew on.  And swallow and swallow and swallow .....  Unfortunately on the way out ... it can get twisted in the intestines and cause very serious damage.

Dawn, a little tabby sort of wild kitty, went to the litterbox after breakfast this morning.  Nothing unusual about that.  She began to cry.  Valerie checked her butt and there was plastic string hanging out.  Though we’ve, thank goodness, never had to deal with this before, Kerry knows how often something like this can happen and the terrible consequences of pulling the string out.   Tearing the intestines is what can happen.  And so it’s one of those things she’s always warning people about - never, never, never, pull something hanging out somebody’s butt.  Never more than the gentlest of pulls, if it’s more than right there at the end, pulling can cause serious, possibly fatal, damage.  Valerie yelled for Lena.  Lena looked, palpated abdomen, Dawn screamed.  Lena yelled for Kerry.  Kerry called doc and Lena was in the car in minutes headed to the hospital.

Dr. Kellum who’s working on her today won’t know how serious it is till she opens her up and starts to remove it.  We’re praying she can be saved and there hasn’t been too much damage to the intestines, which can easily cause a fatal infection.  We’ll know more this afternoon when we pick her up.

Please, no matter where you are, watch out for stuff like this.  Never leave a tarp hanging around where an animal can reach it, climb up to it, jump up to it.  Never leave an old tarp destined for the trash laying around.  After a lot of searching this morning to find out what Dawn had gotten into, we found the old tarp, moved by folks working on a project, that had been left out.  UV damaged and old, it was prime to be torn and eaten. 

It’s not just the strings from tarps either ..... strings off feed bags ... these new plasticy woven like cat and dog food bags are a dangerous material that can fray into strings and be deadly.   Plastic is maybe the worst.  Monofilament, like fishing line, almost always kills, it just cuts so deeply.  Wrap some around your fingers and pull.  Even sewing string can bind up the intestines.

Take a look around your home and make sure it’s safe for your animals. 

When you’re visiting Rikki’s, if you see something potentially dangerous, please pick it up, or alert one of the staff right away.  Had this tarp been thrown away yesterday or had any of us there noticed it and properly bagged it for disposal, poor little Dawn wouldn’t be undergoing surgery right now.

AND WHILE WE’RE AT IT - HERE’S ANOTHER DANGER

Again, this photo is NOT from Rikki’s, but off the web.  Looks like a cute idea for those litter buckets, doesn’t it.  But it could be deadly.  When the lid on the buckets are closed, it’s an airtight seal.  Airtight means when you use up the oxygen inside, you suffocate.  If these kitties were to get these buckets turned over and the lid closed, they’d die. 

How would they close the lids with enough force to seal them airtight?    Very simple.  Jump on top.  That’s all it takes.  One of our dear and conscientious friends lost a cat this way.  Not using the bucket as a toy or sleeping nest.  Just had her bucket of scoopable cat litter there next to the litterboxes.  Thought she’d put the lid down, but must not have been hard enough to seal.  

That evening she came home from work and one of her kitties was missing.  She searched and searched.  No kitty.  She blamed her husband for letting the kitty out when he came home.  She knew they’d both been there as she walked out the door that morning, cuz they were at the food bowl, having breakfast.

It wasn’t till the next morning when she did litterboxes that she opened the bucket of litter -- and found the cat suffocated dead.  You can just imagine her horror and remorse and guilt.  But who would have thought to look in a half full bucket of litter for a missing cat?  A bucket you kept closed all the time. 

So be very careful.  Make sure the lid is closed, double check, give it a tug.  If you can pop it open easy, so can somebody playing around and jumping on things.  If you aren’t using the bucket as a sealed container, then take the lid off. 

They do make great kitty sleeping nests and play toys - but TAKE THAT LID OFF to keep your kitty safe.

We animals COUNT on you humans to keep us safe !!!

Heartwarming !!!

KAITLYN SAYS, “COME MEET MY FRIENDS”

Kaitlyn, known as Dat Baby, by facebook friends of her kitty Quincy Warner, didn’t get toys or presents for her 2^nd Birthday.  She used her Birthday to help her friends at Rikki’s Refuge.  Raising over $500 by asking for donations instead of presents, she’s learning the importance of helping the world.  She loves visiting her friends of all species at Rikki’s.  Though she’ll tell you with a squeal that she loves the kitties the best.  She spent ALL day telling each and every one - I LOVE YOU !!! 

Rikki’s Refuge’s Fall Tour and Nature Hike

November 10, 2012 at 11 am for the TOUR and 1 pm for the NATURE HIKE

RSVP - must have tickets in advance !!!

Vincent@RikkisRefuge.org  to get your tickets.  Limited space available.  HURRY

Dat Baby

is already learning a valuable lesson towards living a rich and rewarding life !!!!

Yeahhhh Quincy for training your little hooman right !!!!  She’s already an asset to our planet !!!

I gotz my own column in the OC Magazine !!!!!

Be sure to pick up your copy every month and keep up with what’s going on at Rikki’s Refuge !!!!

This be Henny Penny's new boyfriend,

I caught them kissing thru the fence but they wouldn't let me take that pic. Timmy thinks Henny Penny is his girlfriend and he don't believe me I saw her kissin' Leghorn Foghorn!

Seez you later,

     I love you, Opie

 
YOU can make it happen!!   
Click to help me feed everybody 
at Rikki’s Refuge !!!!