March 09, 2021 Tuesday at Rikki’s Refuge

all in a day’s work …. photos by those caring for the animals
(you can help support those animals at www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate)

Today’s photo newsletter is dedicated to Paddy Cat and his daddy Ron Herfurth.

Long, long ago, in September of 2004, I got a phone call from someone who’d taken in a cat and just found out he was FIV positive. She’d been told she had to euthanize him right away. He was dangerous, he’d spread the disease, just being in her house he’d infect her other cats. And, anyway, with FIV he’d lead a short and very miserable live. Constantly sick till he died.

But he was perfectly healthy, except for that little blue dot on a test. And she could not bear to kill him. I told her, yes, we housed FIV positive kitties, and in our experience, they were pretty healthy and most of the evidence these days was saying as long as they’re neutered (so they’re not fighting with that deep biting or their rival males, and females of their affections) they’re ok to live with negative cats and there would be no transmission. She wanted to keep him, but feared causing injury to her other cats, or watching Paddy Cat die a long and horrible slow death. This is what so many vets were saying back then, and what most of the literature said. It was only the sanctuaries who didn’t kill them and housed them for life who were discovering their lives were 16, 18, 20 years and had no more illness than negative cats. It’d still be years before the rest of the world caught up with what we already knew.

So Paddy Cat came to Rikki’s. He moved into Cat House #4, where most of our FIV positive kitties lived. Paddy Cat was longhaired and very loving. Our wonderful volunteer Ron Herfurth, who a few years earlier had come on a tour at Rikki’s, returned the next weekend to adopt Cassie, a lovely long hair calico, and then returned the next weekend to volunteer, and has returned most weekend and holidays ever since, met Paddy Cat. Ron loves long hair kitties.

Soon Paddy Cat was following Ron around when he’d work in Cat House #4. Ron had a special place in his heart for FIV kitties too. They were getting such a bad rap at the time. Turned into shelters and usually killed just for a little blue dot.

One day Paddy Cat decided to go home with Ron. That was April 9, 2005. Paddy Cat and Ron and the rest of their feline family

If you’ve seen our pretty theme colors, Ron’s the man responsible. He’s got a great eye for mixing and matching colors. Like he did here at the Life Center.

Ron paints and fixes up, and builds, and landscapes. He’s planted hundreds of fruit trees for the animals all over the Refuge!!

The wishing well in the Center Garden at the Life Center came to us in pretty bad shape.

And see what Ron did !!!

Ron is also the one responsible for most of our pretty signs !!!

And Ron is responsible for having given Paddy Cat a wonderful home for almost 16 years !!! AND TODAY IS PADDY CAT’s 21st BIRTHDAY !!!!! He’s been a happy healthy boy all these years.

And to think, they wanted to kill him when he was only five years old, cus everybody knew if he had FIV he couldn’t lead a happy healthy life and would be better off dead.

Most of our FIV kitties live until close to 20. Our longest lived kitties, those making it over 20, have mostly been positive for FIV. And not a single one of them ever had any health issues we don’t see in the general negative population. Yes, they often come in ragged and torn up. Cus they’re trapped on the streets after a bad fight with another tom and have infected injuries, and they often need a dental when they come in, as do most of the kitties who’ve been living on the streets eating garbage to survive. But once they’ve been fixed up, they’re just as healthy as can be.

Next time YOU adopt, think about welcoming an FIV positive kitty into your home. Though the myths about them have tamed down, there are still people afraid to give them homes, so they end up in shelters on death row far more proportionately then non FIV kitties. Give one a chance to prove how wonderful they can be !!

We have another beautiful day upon us !!!! We’re really enjoying this wonderful warm dry spring weather !!!

Guarding the last cases from the pallet we got

Riley says, oh yeah, you wanna fight over that food?

We’re on YOUR side Riley !!

Stay out of here, we’ve for our case and we’re not sharing.

Who’s gonna share with me?

Will there be anything left of us today?


It’s cool guys, I grabbed a case for us.

Yeahhhh, chow time !!!

Contented cats …. after their all you can eat breakfast buffet



Some stay out of reach unless you’re offering something to eat !!

Mmmmmm stretch it out

Some bellies are fun to scratch, others hurt like heck when you

work at Rikki’s, you learn which bellies are safe to scratch and which aren’t !!!
Are YOU talking about me?

Yup, you learn mighty quick. Some bellies are better left alone !!


All these friggin cats, why do people always want to take pictures of cats?

Cats always like to camouflage in or on colors that match their fur.



The peacock is really marvelous construction !! Each different type of feather has a job. Some hold up the long colorful feathers, others are for rustling.

And everyone lives happily ever after at Rikki’s

With YOUR help we can save and provide life long homes to well over 1,000 animals each & every day !!!!

www.RikkisRefuge.org/Donate
Rikki’s Refuge, 10910 Barr Ln, Rapidan VA 22733 (shipping address for food, etc)
Rikki’s Refuge, PO Box 1357, Orange VA 22960 (secure box for checks, etc)

Thank YOU for making it all possible.