Photo courtesy Rene Luther
Welcome Candy and Greta Garbo, our new residents in Horsey Haven.
Candy was a show jumper injured in a jump. After being abandoned and
left to the meat market, Rikki’s save her to live our her life in greener
pastures. Greta Garbo is a thoroughbred spending her golden years
roaming the fields of Rikki’s.
YOU’D BE MAD, TOO
Apparently, someone thought it would be fun to throw a pregnant cat into a duffle
bag and see what happened. Here’s what happened. We got an email from a
cooperating shelter. A gentleman came home from work to find a duffle bag on his
front lawn. When he went to throw it out, it growled at him. Upon inspecting the bag,
he realized there was a cat inside, but since it was growling and hissing, he didn’t
want to open it. He took it to the shelter and when the shelter staff very carefully
opened the bag, they found a mama with newborn kittens, still wet with umbilical
cords still attached and still giving birth.
She gave birth to seven kittens by the next morning and she was still grumpy. There
was a question of whether she was feral or not because of her actions - swatting
and hissing and wanting absolutely nothing to do with humans. Can’t say we blame
her.
The call for help went out. And coming to the rescue was Paula Burns, one of our
NOVA Cat Adoption Coordinators. Paula took in the mama (who everyone was
afraid of) and her babies (who needed their mama for food). And Paula, being the
cat lady that she is, reports back to us:
“Mom and kittens are doing quite well. They are beautiful babies. Mom is probably
not feral, just scared to death. She has made no effort to strike or attack or bite me
when I mess around in her crate. She just growls so I talk softly to her. She is doing
a good job with the little ones. They are in a soft bed and she climbs in to feed them.
They can climb out when they want to get to her. Mom is eating soft food so I think
I will make friends with her when she learns to trust me.
“You can let everyone know the family is doing well. Thanks for giving them a
chance at life.”
And thank you Paula for taking care of this wonderful little family!
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960
540-854-0870
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www.rikkisrefuge.org
[email protected]
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