It's becoming hot suddenly, and then cold days come back soon.

My cat is confused because he doesn't know where is the comfortable place to sleep.

On the carpet, too hot. But on the wooden floor, still cold.

He is wandering in the house and tries to find the best place!

My cat, Tamasaburo got sick yesterday.
He couldn't eat and walk at all, he had slept by the window all day long.
I took him to the vet and was diagnosed as " Inflamation of bile ducts".
He got a drip a day at the vet clinic, then he recovered entirely.
The vet said " He is quite bad. His blood test result is terribly bad and you should take him soon again when he doesn't eat at home."
Fortunately, he is still fine and cries loudly for food early in the morning!

It's still hot today.
Now it's getting cooler outside a little by little, but inside the house is pretty humid.
My cat Tamasaburo wandered around to find cool places.
And finally he found his best place, in front of the fan!

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.

 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!

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!

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.

I got a phone call from a woman who wants to do TNR by herself, she wanted to ask how to do, so I met her last Sunday.
She is a nun, but she doesn't live in the temple.
She has rescued many kittens she picked up around her house.
Now she has 3 cats in her house and feeds 4 outside cats,of course all spayed/neutered except for young kittens.

These are her cats.
The ginger one, named Magu, was said by the vet "She has FEV, so she can't live more than 6months." when she picked up.

She felt very sorry and decided, "I'll give her everything she wants if she would die soon", but she has been alive for 7years and thanks to her dedicated care, now becomes very fat like a hot water bag!

The 2nd cat, also female, was accepted from a pet shop.

She wasn't sold and the pet shop owner was looking for an adopter,then came to the woman's house.
She is mild hearted and always try to mediate quarrel of other cats.

The 3rd cat, named Riku, is only male.His siblings were all adopted but only he was remained, so she decided to keep him.

Maybe because he is only male, he often picks on Magu.

The woman said "Everyday I say 'DAISUKI(I love you very much)' to them.I think it's very important."
I think those cats are very friendly and lovely, so I love them, too!

It's very rare but I'm alone at home today.
Though it is Saturday, My husband are at work, my daughters are at school, and my parents are going for shopping or so.
Actually, today I planned to bring some stray cats to a vet for spay/neuter, but I had to cancel suddenly because we failed to catch them.
So, now I have no schedule.I did the laundry, cleaned the house, then I started to organize a lot of paper I had collected for my job or study.
I threw away two full of bags in which I put old magazines and paper.

I ate lunch alone, that was all leftovers of last night's dinner.

Now I remember that I have some jobs to have done quickly, because I have been a little busy and I'm behind the schedule, but I don't feel like doing anything...
Oh, my cat is napping.
Can I take a nap with him?

I found some interesting picture books at veterimary hospital.
I love to read picture books when I was waiting for my turn.
This time I found 2 English books, though it was very rare.
One was "Cosset Your Cats".

The book said that we must cosset and pumper our cats, because cats are worth to do so.

Second is "The Truth About Cats".

This book says that cat came from another planet! Wonderful!

The third was a Japanese book, which named How To Keep Cats Properly.
I was given a copy of this page.

The author says, we have to take care of weak, injured, stray, not so cute cats at our home.But as to healthy cats, we should ask them polite way to stay at our home, and have to serve them.
That is the proper way to get along with our luxuary, noble, honorable cats!

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, 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!