Saturday, July 14, 2012

Change of Plans

This weekend I had been torn between finally taking a vacation and helping out at the shelter. After a lot of talking, David and I decided that we deserved a trip to Disneyland to clear our minds and just have a good time, but once again, fate had other plans.
We've had a kitten trap set up outside our house for a few weeks now to try and catch the litter that lives here and to socialize them, then adopt them out (or at least do vaccines and TNR), and we have never had any luck with it, so of course luck decided the weekend we were finally going to go on an adventure would be when a kitten would wander in before I could take down the trap.

To make things even more exciting, I had just stepped out of the house to buy some things for tomorrow's trip, so while out shopping, I got a call from David saying "hey, there's a kitten in our bathroom. What should I do?" Well, I quickly went and bought all the supplies we needed, came home and was met with a tiny wet ball of cuteness hiding behind our toilet.


Poor little thing was quite scared and we could hear it's siblings outside the bathroom window crying to him, and while it was sad to see, we knew we couldn't just release him again, because street cats in this country are often killed, so we know this is his best shot at life.

While setting up the new cage, our new little friend found a strange place to hide, which was nice for us because it made transporting him to the cage quite easy. 
they'll never find me here!
well this is new












Needless to say, now we have no clue when Disneyland will be happening, as we are going to try and socialize this cutie and hopefully capture it's litter mates as well.

Bye bye vacation. Hello cute new roommate.

*Better pictures to follow as soon as he settles in*


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

New arrival


I am still in no mood to write, but the days keep passing by, and things need to be recorded.

heading out to feed
local dog enjoying a treat

On July 1st I went with JCN into Namie again, and while there we filled 34 feeding bins with food, which took an entire van filled with bags to manage, and also made some side stops to check on local animals that owners don’t want taken out, but still need some good food and love.










We also added a new bin that was created by a wonderful volunteer















We had just gotten a phone call that morning about one of the locals JCN helps, saying his dog had had puppies and we wanted to make sure they were alright and once again try and convince him to get his dogs fixed. Instead, it turned out to just be a rumor, which I personally think he started to get us to come visit him since he had a huge amount of prepared home cooked food and treats from Sendai already waiting when we arrived… if that is true, I certainly cannot blame him, he lives alone in an otherwise empty town, with no one to talk to besides his dogs, it must be a very lonely life. After a 2 hour long chat with him, and me getting tricked into eating fish, my least favorite food, we finally headed out around 8pm, which was great since it was still a 90min trip back to the shelter and then another 2 hours home and I had work in the morning, but fate had other plans for us that night. Instead of heading straight back, we stopped to feed a tiny kitten alongside the road, it became clear very quickly that she was not feral, so we trapped her. She turned out to be incredibly friendly, and not a kitten at all, but instead a recent mother. We have no idea where she had been living though, because where she was found there were no houses or feeding bins in the area. She currently has no name, but all of my students have suggested Yuki (snow).





I also got to check on the cat I trapped last month, who I named Kocha (tea) after myself and because he has a big "T" on his forehead. It's still unclear if he's going to be friendly, but Kocha at least seems to be settling in and fattening up a bit.













 The following week I stopped by for just a day to say goodbye to Kuma, who was leaving for his new foster home in Iwate. I will miss that dog dearly, he is just one of the kindest souls imaginable.
 

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I simply wanted to apologize for not updating about my last 2 trips to the shelter, honestly I have been in a strange depression as of late, and when I am depressed, the motivation to write just does not come. 
For some reason I have had this terrible irrational fear that when I eventually return to the United States, all of my loved ones will have moved on and won't have a place for me in their lives anymore. Irrational, I know, but that does not stop it from creeping up.