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.

We had the first snow in this winter.
In our region, only a little snow covered on the ground, but they have much more snow in the northern part of our prefecture.
I saw the mountains on the other side of the lake all covered with snow, though I didn't see the last weekend.

I came to trap some cats for TNR here, at the lake side.
It's cold outside but I found 4 or 5 cats and kittens there.
Some cats came near but others ran away as soon as they saw me.
I set traps and hide for a while, soon trapped 2 cats, which were rather friendly ones.

I saw some cats under the cabin, but I waited more than 1 hour, no cats appeared again, so I had to give up today.

Last time I trapped 4 cats and kittens here, and released after spaying/neutering.
I thought there remained 2 adult cats and 4 kittens, but I saw new other 3 cats today!
I wonder how many cats are abandoned here...

This is a place where many fishermen come around and give fish to cats, and some people likely to come here only to feed cats.
Now our group is planning to do something to stop cats abandoned here quickly and TNR for all cats here, with more comfortable spaces for them.

We attended the Summer Festival held in the local area on Aug.29th.
It was held late as Summer Festival, but many people came and enjoyed meals, songs and dances that people played each other.
Our NPO opened a flea market and did some atractions.
Kids gathered and enjoyed goldfish scooping -although not real fish,- or hooking water yoyo.

Colorful and pretty erazers were very popular.

After dark, the BON Dance was held.It's the big fun of summer, people dance to the dance songs and go around the tower.
Unfortunately, I had to go back home before starting BON Dance, I really wanted to join!

Today, I and Susan, the leader of our NPO Japan Cat Network come to an University in Nara prefecture to help students doing TNR for stray cats living near the dormitory of the University.
There are 3 cats here, a mother, a son, and a daughter.
Kittens are about 7 months old, and very friendly.

But mother doesn't appear...maybe she is very cautious and knew something wrong would happen with her 6 sense.
Anyway, we have waited all day long, hoping we could catch mother, but now it's time to go back...
The university students gave up to catch mother and she brought 2 kittens to vet.

And we borrowed the trap and leave there.
Maybe mother cat would appear after we have gone.
I hope she would success next time!

When we got back to home, the student called me and she caught the mother cat and brought her to vet.
She appeared to eat food soon after we left.
And the vet said that she was pregnant, that was why she was so cautious...

Anyway, we did it successfully!

Today, I brought cats to a vet clinic in Hirakata city, Osaka prefecture, about 100km from our town.
My friend, who is doing TNR program and rescue kittens in Hirakata city, told me that they would have neuter operations at free of charge, and they would accept more 10 cats, so asked me to bring cats there, if our group had unnutered male cats.

Of course there are so many cats in our region, most of them are stray and not spayed/neutered yet.
I called some of volunteers who are feeding stray cats and now doing TNR program with our group to catch males as much as possible.
Then, I put all 8 cats (including 3 kittens) in my car and drove through 100km to the clinic.

In Hirakata city, there is a park that is famous as many abondoned cats.
The leader of our group helped TNR here last year, it was terrible situation when she saw there first time.
Many volunteers joined and caught, spay/neutered 89 stray cats during 6months and 78 were returned to the park, 11 were adopted. In addition, our leader rescued more than 30 young kittens and almost all were adopted or fostered.
That is amazing!

Now the situation in the park looks like much better.
High cost for spay/neuter operation is always a big problem for volunteers of TNR like us, so it would be a big help that vets sometimes help us with cost down.

Today, I and Susan, the leader of our NPO, were invited to the barbeque party held by ARK(Animal Refuge Kansai), the most famous organization of animal rescue here in Japan.

It was clouded and sometimes started pouring suddenly, but not so bad to have bbq.
There came many people.Most of them were dog owners who had adopted dogs from ARK.

Dogs looked like veeery happy to run around in dog run space.

We ate many vegitable, sawsages, potatoes, and lamb meat.

The place where we had bbq was bought by ARK last year, to make another new sanctuary.
Mis Elizabeth Oliver, the president of ARK, is the top leader in the field of animal rescue in Japan.
She has been struggling with this poor conditions about animal control in Japan, since she first got to Japan from England more than 30 years ago.
We met very nice people here and got back home with so much satisfied!

But there is one problem...if we had the party like this and invited people who adopted cats from our shelter, they wouldn't be able to take their cats with them...
Can you imagine to let many cats play in the field?

Today, one kitten was adopted.
Her new family looks like very good.
Gentle father, kind mother, and cute daughter.

They have another boy cat, he is very active and quarreling with new cat.
Mother was afraid that the boy cat would hurt the new cat, because he was much bigger and stronger than new kitten.

But she is not so weak, let me say, a kind of tomboy.
Maybe they would be good friends!

Today, I ran around to adopt kittens.

In the morning, I introduced a family to the woman who is feeding stray cats.
She lives near the lake, and some people come and throw away kittens around her house.

She has picked them up and taken care of them.She feeds 8 outside cats and 10 inside.
These are cats she is feeding outside.


I hope the family I introduce today would like the kitten and adopt him.

In the afternoon, I met another family who wants to adopt another kitten.
The foster family of the kitten also pick up some strays, but this time they can't keep any more kittens...so they called us and asked to help.

Our NPO, Japan Cat Network has a motto, "Helping people help cats".
We help who wants to help cats, and I found a family who wants to adopt her.
I hope all those kitten would have happy family!

A worker of Welfare Soceity of old people came to me and said.An old woman has to be hospitalized and her nephew, a half Japanese Canadian came to take care of her.But the old woman was feeding stray cats and now 12 cats including 6 kittens are around her house, so her house is terribly messy.
The Canadian nephew said, "I have to clean my aunt's house, so are there anyone who will take cats away from the house?"
So, I decided to catch all cats and spay/neuter them, then ask a neighbor who is a friend of the old woman to keep cats for a while.

On Saturday, we brought many traps and cages, started to catch cats.
Neighbours are very good people and used to take care of the old woman and cats, so they cooporated to catsh the cats and said that they would donate for spay/neuter them.

Canadian woman said, "In Canada, Humain Society does all about animals and we don't have to worry what to do in such cases.Why aren't there the Humane Society in Japan?"
Yes, she is right.We don't have any organizations like Humane Society.Public animal control can only accept cats and destroy them, they can't make all of them adopted.

But there are many people who are kind to animals, so our NPO want to help those people.
It took whole day to catch 6 adult cats and 2 kittens.There still remain 2 other adults and 4 kittens, but they didn't appeared any more, so we gave up to catch them and decided to restart another day.
Then, we spay/neutered them and brought them to foster care.

Next day was Sunday, and we went to check again, but we couldn't catch cats anymore.I don't know where they go and what to do.
Then I had to go to over night work, because of Influenza, so I asked neighbours to contact me if they found cats again.

It was so hard weekend, but I was happy to work for people who are so kind to other people and animals!

I got a call from a woman who has been feeding stray cats for 3years. She and her friend caught some of strays and spay/neuter them, but one of cats gave birth to some kittens in the box that her family made for the cat's house.
She wanted us to help catching the cats to spay her, and find new owners for kittens.So, we caught them by trap and brought to the shelter of Japan Cat Network.

The vet said that kittens are so tiny and they need mother's milk, so we should keep them together at least 3 weeks before spaying.But mother cat gets very nervous in the cage and warns us to protect the kittens.So my friend, the leader of NPO worries about they are OK for 3 weeks...

I sometimes wonder if it would be pity for mother cats to be caught by scary human, taken their kittens away and spayed not to get any more kittens...
But it's best way for both kittens and mother cats in future.

Anyway, mother is great!!!

Today, I got a call from an woman who lives alone with 5 cats.
She said now she lost her job and she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to feed her cats any more...
I told my friend of cat rescue NPO leader and decided to give her some cat food.
We went to her house.She lives in very old apartment, she said that it's been 100years sinse constructed.She really looked like poor, but her cats were all very cute and clean, looked like very healthy and happy with her.

She said she accepted stray cats that neighbors picked up here and there, and spay/nuterd all of them.
I know some people feed cats even though they don't have enough food for themselves.
Some people take cats to vet even though they don't go to doctor when they got sick.
Actually she is one of those kind of people, and I respect her.

I really hope all cats lovers and their cats would be happy together!

My friend works at Japanese NPO "Japan Cat network".
You can see her recent best shot here...please check it, too! ;-)

For these 2 weeks, there increasing cat rescue offers.
Last weekend, 2 people called us and needed help.They picked up kittens attacked by crows in the park near they lived.The park was placed far away from each other, but 2 people called us almost same time.
Those kittens were 1 or 2 weeks old and one died soon...It must be very difficult to take care of 1 week kitten for someone who had not kept cats...

Then, I picked up 4 kittens that stray cats gave birth and gone away, under the neighbors's house.My friend, who is a representative of our cat rescue group, soon took them to vets and now they are fine.

And this weekend, an woman called me and asked our help to catch 2 female cats she is feeding, for TNR.She has been feeding them for a month at the parking lot of a supermarket with some of her coworkers.She is afraid that cats lool like sick, and also cats would give birth new babies, so she wants us to catch up them and take to vets quickly.

Today, I got up very early and caught both of them by traps.Our vets are very kind to stray cats and said that they don't look like having any diseases, and he will spay/neuter them next week and do some treatment if necessary.

Now these kinds of cats would increase day by day, it's also spring issues...

Our new cat enclosure is up!
I posted about working for the enclosure remodeling of Japan Cat Network, a cat rescue organization I'm helping, and now it's all up and we all love it.Of course cats DO love it!
This is outside of the enclosure.



And inside.


Cats are relaxing.



Now, new volunteers gathered in Tokyo and they started working for new TNR activities and adoptions, also fundrasing.
That's Tokyo...both people and money can be gathered quickly...
But this year, we'll work harder to gather volunteers and money, here in the coutryside,too!

Today, we worked for remodeling of the Shelter of Japan Cat Network, the cat rescue group which I'm helping, VERY HARD work!

We had to remove all garden stones and mud without any machines and make ground flat.
We digged cray wall with picks, put them on pushcarts with shovels, and brought it to rice field 100m away all by ourselves.



Then we digged out a camellia tree and moved another place.
Our group don't have extra money, so we have to do everything with DIY soul!


We started from 8:30 in the morning, and all finished at 5:30 in the evening.To be honest, we couldn't believe that we finished all of this work in a day.Now, we have very flat ground to build new cat enclosure on!
But I'm afraid that I would have hard pain in my back... :-(



Today, I got a furreind award from Elin.
Thanks for your friendship, Elin, I'm very very happy! Terima kasih! ;-)