This is Betty – if you have been out to Rikki’s for a visit, you for sure have met this lovely lady. She likes to supervise her area of the tour! Betty came to us from New York City. She was roaming the streets and a call went out for Animal Control to pick up this poor lost kitty. Well Betty was not impressed. She snarled and tried to elude the officer. She was finally caught on the end of a rabies pole. That’s a long handle with a nose on the end that you can get around an animals neck, keep them secure and keep them at a distance so they can’t bite you. It’s used as a last resort when catching an animal, or when one fears the animal will bite. Well …. Betty, once again, wasn’t impressed. When the officer got her into a cage and was attempting to remove the noose … Betty bit. That’s called a provoked bite in the animal biz. I mean, really, come on, if the aliens dropped in, chased you down, noosed you, tried to put you in a cage ….. would you fight for your life? Would you bite? At any rate, the rules are the rules and any animal that bites may not be adopted back out into the city. It may be taken by a rescue organization that is out of state. But it will not be allowed to live in the state.

And so Betty sat on death row. Two things saved her life for a few days, long enough for that second chance to happen. Being a stray she couldn’t be killed right away, there is a period of time an animal must be held to give the owner a chance to find it. This varies from 24 hours in some places to 10 days in others. And she was on a quarantine hold because she bit. So in that cage she would sit, for ten long frightening days, as she saw the others being taken from the death row cages and killed. Can you imagine how that must feel? Some one at the shelter fell in love with her. They were desperate to save her. They knew somebody who’d heard of us from a friend who’d visited ….. and they sent an email asking if she could come live with us.

We specialize in critters with issues. The rejects of society. The ones nobody wants. The ones who have thumbed their nose at hooman society and will likely be put to death for their comment.

And so shortly after Betty got out of bite quarantine, we signed all the waivers about a dangerous biting cat, and Betty got into a carrier and her rescuer drove her to Rikki’s Refuge.

While she was doing her quarantine here she was restless. No matter where you are coming from, when you come on the property you have to go thru a quarantine here. We make sure you’re up to date on everything and you have no nasty worms or fleas or anything to spread around. I know it’s scary to get out of a cage in one place, and have to be in another one here for two weeks. But it’s one of those lesser of the two evil things we have to do. It protects everyone. Our quarantine is as friendly as it can be. They have a spacious building, with big windows, all cages have a window view, where they can look out and watch the other residents. They usually feel the peace and joy here, none of that terror in so many pounds, the joy of animals who’ve found a real home, a place they can call home forever, a place they are appreciated, not just counted off as one more number. A place they aren’t seeing others frightened and dying.

This quarantine period also gives us a chance to get to know our new residents. To learn their purrsonality. To figure out where they will be happiest living. Would they want to be adopted to a regular home? Do they want to live in a cat house with other kitty friends? Are they mascot, free range, material? Do they want to be near people or not? Betty was lovely. Though we’d made note to be cautious she may be a biter, we never say any aggressive moves. Oh, I forgot to tell you. Before she’d arrived, they’d given her the name Bitey. It was after we got to know her better that she became Betty. I think she likes that better.

Anyway Betty hates being confined. Is it because of her ordeal on death row? Or had she always grown up in the streets in New York City? Who knows, she’s not talking much about her past life. Once she was able to be free range on the refuge, she glowed with happiness and peace!  She can often be found napping and just enjoying life.  

At Rikki’s she loves being a free range mascot. She’s made herself a special net in our tool shop. Almost every out building here has a kitty door. That’s because once upon a time a long time ago, somebody was missing for dinner one night. We searched and we called and we were really upset. We finally found him in the tool shop. Somebody had been working, and the kitties love to help with all the chores, and he’d found a nice place to take a nap …. and been shut in. So to keep that from ever happening again, we put kitty doors everywhere.

Betty doesn’t like other cats too close to her territory and she patrols her area. She loves the cows and the horses and the donkey, especially the donkey. She loves spending time with them. And she loves visitors. She will only come in the 9th Life Center a couple nights a year when it’s really cold … like below zero. Other than that, she says “thank you but no thank you, I’ve got a purrfectly fine and beautiful thick coat and I’m happy right here !!”