Now we are promoting TNR in our prefecture.
When people complained about troubles caused by stray cats, we tell them the effect of TNR and how to get along well with stray cats.

In many case, one or two feeders feed stray cats without spay/neuter and people have troubles with poop of increasing cats.
And in most of case, resident say "Take all cats away from this area!" with anger, but our law doesn't allow to eradicate stray cats.
So we persuade them to try TNR, which is the only effective way to reduce cats.

We accept requests from the representative of neighbors' community association to try TNR, then we help them to trap cats and spay/neuter with registered volunteers.

Last week, a volunteer trapped and brought 9 cats and kittens from the lake side village, where many many cats were abandoned.

We have many other jobs and don't have enough time to do surgery everyday, but we are trying to spay/neuter strays as many as possible.

Yesterday, I attended the symposium about stray cats held in Osaka city.
Many volunteers, government officials, charity organizations attended, some of whom I know.
In Japan, the stray cats cause many problems all over the country now.
Most of case, some people feed cats without spay/neuter, so neighbors complain that cats increase and leave their poop or damage neighbors gardens.

All members think that the most important and efficient way to solve the problems is TNR.
Volunteers said "We need the support of local government.", government officials said "We need volunteers' help." so we have to cooperate strongly.

 I am an official of local government animal control, and I'm working as a volunteer as well.
So I understand both side of opinion.
In some area, it goes very well with cooperation between local government and volunteers, but in other area, volunteers work hard but local government doesn't support.
In our prefecture, we want to promote TNR as local government but we have only a few volunteers to help us.

I hope we could promote more and more TNR projects to reduce unhappy kittens.

 Yesterday, a dog training class was held by the registered volunteer of our animal control.
He arranged this class in his town and a professional trainer came to teach training voluntarily.
Now the people who want to learn training dogs are increasing, and I hope those project would be held in other towns or cities.

But... I think it's true that Japanese people are not good at dog training.
I guess they might not know the "proper timing" to give dogs "command" and "reward".
When the owners said "sit" and their dogs sit, many owners don't say their dogs "good" immediately, so their dogs would be bored and move around, then the owners say "No! Sit, sit!!" again, and their dogs won't hear the owners voice any more...

 This is the dog adopted from our center. She has been trained for 3 months and now has become a very smart dog!

Yesterday, I heard a phone call from a JR station official.
He said, "A stray dog has been chained in front of the station since this morning and no one has come to pick him up, so will you come and take him?"

It was already 5:00 pm and we were preparing for leaving the office, but I had to go to the station and pick up the dog.

When I got to the station, it was nearly 6:00 pm.
A man was there with the dog and the station official. He said, "It was me that chained this dog this morning. I found this dog on the way to the station, and I chained him because I was afraid he could be hit by a car. Then, I had to hurry up for work and got on the train."

This is the photo the man took in the morning. The dog is Shiba breed, and very friendly.

And this is the photo I took in the evening. He looks so nice sitting and waiting his owner.

The station official said "I thought this dog was a kind of HACHIKOU, waiting his owner patiently".
But unfortunately, his owner didn't come.
I think maybe his family is looking for him, because he was running with his chain, and he is very good, cute dog.

The man who chained him kindly walked with him to find the owner around the station for 30 minutes, but he couldn't find.
Many passengers came around to see the dog and said,
"Haven't your mother come yet?"
"I'm very sorry he can't go back home."
"I'll ask my neighbors if their dogs are running away." etc. etc...

Anyway, no one had come to pick him up, so I had to take him to our animal control center.
We'll keep him at least one week, but if the owner would not come to see him, then...!
.I hope he would be able to meet his family soon.

Yesterday, I visited a president of neighborhood community association of a town in Hikone city.
He asked us if there are some good ways to reduce stray cats around his area.
Now we hear those kinds of requests everyday. Sometimes there are a feeder to stray cats and the number of cats increase, making many troubles between the feeders and neighbors.

Actually, local government doesn't have any rules to regulatory those who feed stray cats, we don't have effective way to reduce stray cats and the troubles caused by them.
We used to tell people "Don't feed stray cats", but now we have realized that it doesn't work at all.
People who feed stray cats think they are poor, so they can't stop feeding. Then, those people would feed them secretly and problem would not disappear.

Now we recommend TNR in those case. This time I tried to explain him how TNR would work to solve the stray cats problems and to make both people and cats happy.

Fortunately, he was very kind to animals and said he would try to discuss about TNR with neighbors.
Then he said, "I adopted a dog from your animal control office 2 years ago." and showed the female dog, named "HANA (it means flower)".

HANA grew up a very cute dog and is trained well, I was very happy to see everyone in her family love her very much!

I've not updated my blog almost half a year.
I've been too busy since I moved to another office in April and I haven't had time to even sit in front of my PC everyday.

Now I'm working at the animal control center of prefecture.
We accept dogs and cats almost everyday and destroy them, though we try hard to adopt as many dogs and cats as possible, but unfortunately there are still hundreds of dogs and cats that would end their lives in miserable.

We have some education programs here to promote "animal welfare" among people.
"The week of animal welfare" is one of those events held by national government.
It's from 20th to 26th September every year and we usually hold the festival on a day of this week.

This year, we held it on 26th (Sun), and this would be the last festival we hold at our facility.
Because our budget is cut every year and we don't have enough money and workers to continue this event from next week.

Fortunately, we was able to hold the last festival on a very clear, comfortable, fine day in autumn.
It made us forget these hottest summer days we had never experienced ever before!

We had an educational speech, dog training class or some other corners to tell people how to live with their animal happily and how the lives of animals are important for human.

I hope all dogs and cats would be happy with their owners, and the number of abandoned animals would decrease.

 The pet stuffs shopper IRISOHYAMA inc. released the ranking of cats' name in Japan of 2010.
 That was,
  No.1  Momo (it means a peach)
  No.2  Chibi (it means small, little, tiny)
  No.3  Kuro (it means black)
  No.4  Mie (maybe the voice of meow)
  No.5  Hana (it means a flower)
  No.6  Tora (it means a tiger)
  No.7  Nana (same as a girl's name of human)
  No.8  Sakura (it means cherry blossoms)
  No.9  Milk (it is milk)
  No.10 Lin (no means)

 The traditional cats' name are "Tama (it means a kind of a ball)", "Mike (it means carico)",
"Buchi (it means spots)"... I wonder how they name of their cats in other countries.

 

 What do you name her?

This year, our NPO attend the Spayday Internatipnal 2010.
And I entry the photo contest with my cats, Tamasaburo.
If people voted to my photo, our NPO Japan Cat Network would get donation.
I attended with this photo.

photo contest

Please vote for me here!!!

Yesterday, I went to an old woman who asked me to trap a stray cat to spay.
Our group was registered as a city volunteer 2 years ago and she was the first client after we appeared on the city news magazine.

I visited her house and saw the black female cat, and thought that this cat was one of those we trapped and returned after spaying 2 years ago, but she claimed that this cat was another one, because her neighbor said this cat had given birth under old woman's house in last October.

She doesn't become forgetful - though she often says same thing - she remember many things clearly.But she didn't go out of the house and she didn't confirm the kittens by herself.
She stays in her house all day long and she can do her stuffs by herself.
But she has a respiratory disease and has to take on ventilator every time, so she can't go out alone.

 That's because I wondered if the cat really was another one...?


Another reason I thought the cat was same as we trapped before was that she was very cautious with the trap and she would never enter it.
I waited 30 minutes after setting the trap.The cat came and walked around and ate all food in front of the trap, then she sat next to the trap waiting the old woman came and feed her.
I doubted the cat knew of the trap!!

But the old woman kept going that cat was another one, so I waited more than 1 and half hour, but she ran away at last. So I had to give up yesterday.

I listened to her stories while we were waiting. I like to hear stories of old people, because they have had many experiences I never knew.

This time, she told about a dog she had kept by 5 years ago.
The dog was a male, Shiba mixed one and 17 years old when he died.He became senile and had many diseases.He walked around the house in the midnight, crying oddly, and failed to use his toilet.
The old woman had had hard days to take care of him.Finally the dog died on December 31th, the busiest day in a year here in Japan.She called a pet funeral company on the New Year's Day,  cremated the body and buried carefully as same as a human.
She said all family had cried and they still visit to his grave every year.

Then her grandchild wrote a composition about this story at her junior school, and she won the prize! Her teacher impressed with the composition very much and it was on the air at the local radio.
It was Great!! The girl had a very important experience, I think.

I found this news on WEB today.
The news said it's a very famous video so maybe you have watched.
It's very cute!! This is;


And another news is here.
It's "Year of the Tiger" this year, so in HongKong, the cats agility contest was held.

Looks like very robust!

Now I have many requests for TNR here and there.
I visited some feeders to check the situation and arranged when and how we could trap cats and bring them to vets.
I trap cats or kittens and bring them to spay/neuter almost every Saturday, but yesterday, I couldn't trap any cats at the all places where I was asked by the feeders.
It's always like this...it's getting more and more difficult to trap cats at the same place, because the rest of cats would learn what traps would do for them!

I gave up and had to arrange for next time, and I had no choice but to stay home and do households.
Then, I took a rest with my daughter, who just ended her first entrance exam for the university.
This is the photo of my daughter and our cat, Tamasaburo.

My daughter is loved by cats, everywhere and everytime.
She can hold the cats who are so shy that no family member could touch.

Tamasaburo looks like very happy to be pet by my daughter!

My co-workers and I went to a Japanese restaurant and ate expensive lunch than usual...

At first, the appetizer was served. It was marinated fish.

 

Then, the main lunch box with SOBA noodle came.
There were four boxes and SASHIMI, TEMPURA, boiled fish and vegitables, SUSHI in them.

And the last was dessert, a pudding with strawberry and black beans.
All of them tasted very good and we all satisfied.
We had a little bit gorgeous time!

Last time I wrote that there is only one shrine that worships cats in Japan, but it was not true.
I read this news today, it says "The stones statues of Cat God were found in the northern part of Japan."
This is the photo on the news site.

A long time ago, silk raising industry was very popular in this area.
So people used to worship cats, because cats attack mice, which is the enemy of silkworm.
People made cat shaped stone statues and put them in the shrines or individuals' houses.

Silk raising industry used to develop here and there in Japan, so I think the similar statues could be found other areas.
Then, I searched "Cat God" by google and found there are many shrines and temples related to faith of "Cat God".

Then, I bought this book at Amazon, named "Pathway of Cat God".

We have many many Cat God all of Japan!

We have a custom to worship cats.
"MANEKINEKO", (happy cats or welcoming cats?) is representative one.
It is a ceramic ornament which shapes cat, that raises one hand to invite people, money and happy.

This is the MANEKINEKO I found at the porch of a Japanese sweets shop.

And these were at the porch of a Chineese noodle shop.

Today I read a news about the only shrine in Japan which enshrine Cat as God.
The shrine is at Tokushima prefecture and named "OMATSU DAIGONGEN", which derives from the story of "BAKENEKO" or a monster cat.
"OMATSU" was a name of woman whose husband was a village mayor.
He borrowed money from a marchant and died soon after payed back money.
But the marchant didn't recognize that he payed back, and OMATSU claimed to the Lord but he  didn't listen to her either, finally OMATSU was put to death.

After that, a monster cat appeared on the house of the marchant and the Lord, and many terrible things happened.So people built a shrine to appease the soul of OMATSU.

Now a lot of test-takers for entrance exam visit this shrine, because this God is supposed to back up to pass the exam.

The last news is about a cat of Jesus Christ
What do you think with this? ;-)

My job started from Jan. 4th, as every year.
Our New Year's Holidays begin from Dec.28th to Jan.3rd, but this year 4th is Monday, so we have to work on full weekdays from Monday after a week of holidays.

It's on Wednesday yet...it seems to be veeeery long this week...

By the way, I found a funny news today.
"Tama", maybe the most famous cat in Japan who works as a stationmaster at the local railway station, became an executive at the railway company!

The original news is here.

Actually "Tama" is a popular name of cat here in Japan.
In the animation "Sazaesan", heroine's family has a white cat named "Tama".

Our cat is "Tamasaburo", named after the famous KABUKI actor, but we also wanted to include "tama" in his name.
But we call him "Sabu", not "Tama".
He won't work at all unlike another "Tama", he sleeps in front of the stove all day long!

Now it's the New Year's Day.
We had a cold morning and a little snow.
Our cat, Tamasaburo was waiting in front of the stove for it would be fired, when I got up.
We took OZOUNI and OSECHI, the new year's dishes like every year, and go to Shrine to pray for health and peace in this year, too.

The last year, I was a little busier than usual with my volunteer work.
It was anyhow achieved what I declared to do last year, to promote TNR in our region and to cooperate the animal control center with improving local cat situations.
And, it's amazing for me, as a person who would be soon bored, could have continued to write this blog for a year.
I think it's owing to the Enter Card, because I wrote my blog if someone might read it.
My "New Year's resolution" is same as the last year, and I have to work much harder this year.
Anyway, I'm going to take a rest in the New Year Holidays, so that I would work with new energy again!