Sunday morning greetings from all of us at Rikki's Refuge!
A quick reminder before you read today's blog, don't forget to vote for Rikki's Refuge in the Shelter Challenge today! We appreciate your support!
Today we're going to share with you Gideon's story. We do understand that sometimes it is very overwhelming for our readers to be told over and over again that we have between 1200 and 1300 animals (over 22 species too!) here. Believe us when we tell you it's sometimes overwhelming for us too....as we are involved in their daily care and feeding.....and are constantly chasing down financial support for everyone as we are totally run on donations as a registered non-profit. It is endless, but it is also the most rewarding and beautiful thing we can imagine doing. We will never give up!
This is Gideon.
This is Gideon.
Gideon came to Rikki's Refuge in 2005 as a FIV+ feral. He turned out to be quite a friendly fellow, despite hating being in a cage or carrier. Close-confinement really freaked him out...as one can imagine for a guy who was used to wandering around out in the open for all his life. Gideon also had cancer on his ear-tip, and had multiple surgeries over the years to keep the cancer from spreading so quickly. This is why Gideon's ear appears damaged and scarred. In 2011 when he was thought to be around 20 and sure looked it, the cancer spread to the third eye lid. Surgery again for Gideon. Our vet. tried so hard to save his eye, but the cancer had spread so badly, that removing his left eye was the only way to save him. So you see, Gideon's scars were hard won.
So, at 20 years old, after four surgeries (3 for his ear, and 1 for his eye)...Gideon still exuded that strong spirit. He wasn't done with us yet.
To keep him from hurting the incision we had to let him out. He went to the 9th Life Area. He was still angry about being a cone head and about not being allowed outside - he loves real fresh nums and hates to eat kibble and canned. He likes his furry and on the run. No more mice in the cat food storage trailer since Gideon earned his running rights! Well at least not many that stay long. He was a good boy and ate the canned nums. Then curled up with his friends to nighty.
He recovered fine and went on to live two years longer. He was a free range kitty and enjoyed following us around as we did our chores. Very nice, very talkative, loved to greet visitors. Nothing kept him down.
His last day he made a real point of running to say goodby to the volunteers he knew well and to all of us. Went to bed in his usual "dog" house outside where he could keep an eye on everything ..... he worked with Beauty and Kiki to guard things at night and always watched the driveway. Hated to be made to come inside for anything. In the morning he was still curled up in his bed but his soul had left for RB.
So you see....this is how your donations help one animal at a time. Your support for Rikki's Refuge gave Gideon the gift of 6 years of life, happiness, veterinary care, food, shelter and love. This is why what you do, matters so much. Gideon's story was shared a few years ago in this blog. But, as we begin to share individual stories with you through our blog, we thought it very appropriate to share Gideon's story again. We sure do miss him, and will never forget him.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GIFT OF LIFE TO BEAUTIFUL GIDEON!
If you would like to help Rikki's Refuge, your donations enable us to help more animals just like Gideon, because here at Rikki's Refuge, all life matters.
