Cold and snow for a while now, making it harder to trap and just to get around in general. We had a couple of escapees from one of the enclosures, when the door didn’t latch completely, and have been trying to round them up. Lots of safe nooks and cat houses for them to hunker down in, out with the ferals, and we could see them out and about. Unfortunately one was Jun, who was absolutely manic to get out to start with, and Gemma, who was still in the process of being socialized. Neither of these girls seemed to want to go anywhere near a trap, both having been trapped previously. Luckily, we had help catching Jun, from the people who initially called us about her, as she eventually returned to camp outside their door. Sad that Mimi-chan is so completely intolerant, because they’d like to keep Jun, as well. However, Mimi had a terrible time getting along with others while at the shelter (she cried/hissed/growled for weeks!), so we definitely sympathize. I suppose it’s possible that Jun was lost, rather than abandoned, but either way, she seems to have now attached herself to these people’s home. Hopefully eventually getting her into a home of her own will curb her desire to get outside. We’ve still been out trying to catch Gemma several times a day–She seems enormously pleased with herself, camping out under a house down the street, lounging in their planters, and stretching luxuriously just out of our reach. She does blink nicely at us, and send a few mews our way when we call her, but that’s about it. David was out trying to trap her again a night or so ago, and caught a weasel instead. Turns out weasels are just about as stinky as skunks! And their ability to “weasel out of things” is well-earned! The weasel got himself right out of the trap and took off, leaving behind a much befouled trap, not to mention poor David, who picked up the trap expecting to see the rather more welcome sight of Gemma! We’re really frustrated about what to do, as she’s proving very elusive–sticking close to this house and ducking under the very low space underneath, whenever we approach. I’d like to say that the lesson here is to work on creating a double door system for the enclosures, to prevent such escapes in future…but honestly, there are just so many things to get to, in the list of jobs, it’s already overwhelming. Keep hoping help is around the corner…

In better news, Taiyo has done an about face and has warmed up to us enough to climb in our laps when we sit down in the kitten room, and to rub up against our legs at feeding time. Such a relief that he’s coming around, thanks to lots of work from David, using socialization strategies. Barney hasn’t made any progress yet, but we are still holding out some hope. We hate to give up on socializing the difficult ones, since without active efforts being made to the contrary, they soon slip into their own isolated world, having no chance for homes. Again, the real issue is available time, which is in constant and endless demand. The numbers game seems to prove that when we creep over a shelter total of 40 cats, things become more stressful and more problems arise. Add to that, if we creep under our regular amount of hours spent teaching, we have difficulty paying the bills. Have had some new foster volunteers, so David took 2 kitties out to Osaka on Sunday and is planning on taking 3 to adoptive homes in Tokyo next week, along with 2 or 3 more fosters there. Cho-cho and Cosmo are both long term residents, and this is their first chance to live in homes, at least since their abandonment. Both were a bit concerned about the new spaces to begin with, but had begun to come out for attention before David left. Wishing them some happiness and comfort with people who have more time to shower them with attention! Angelo and Carrie were adopted last week in Tokyo, bringing our foster number down, and freeing up space at Elsa’s. She took them to their new home, and both seem to be settling in well.

Now regularly helping folks with trapping and spay/neuter, which will help to lower the numbers needing rescue once spring is here. We’ll be ordering more traps soon–guess the good news is that we need them to fill requests. Though it’s not the most comfortable season to be trapping in (cold, cold), it really is the perfect time as far as the year is concerned. No worries yet about those pregnant or recently having given birth, to complicate matters. Plus, we’re doing a lot of 6 or 7 month olds, which means they won’t be mating at all or coming in contact with diseases as a result.

Lily, Hilary’s rescue has recovered and was adopted! What an ordeal both Lily and Hilary went through, but how wonderful that everything worked out in the end. Lily is living with a retired History teacher, and all seems to be going well. More news bites on the January photo page…

A few conflicts over people who have, for various reasons, failed to live up to adoption contract requirements. Not fun having to confront people on the issues, but folks need to know that we take the contract very seriously, and that our primary concern is the safety and well being of the kitties that we’ve worked so hard to get into good homes. We greatly value the hard work and sacrifice that our volunteers have made in this regard, and we have a responsibility to them, as well as to the cats, to do our best to insure that things go well in new homes. In fact, we regularly refuse homes that are unable to commit to or that we think will have real difficulty maintaining our contract standards. It’s not always easy evaluating placements, and we do second guess ourselves sometimes, but we also keep finding many amazing families that provide excellent updates. Stories of successful and happy homes are the motivating factor behind so much of why we are all involved in this effort, and I can’t say enough how important they are in keeping things going.

Which brings me to Chopper...He was found out in the snow, by a junior high school student who couldn’t help but bring him home. The family have a dog that lives in the house with them, and felt strongly that they couldn’t keep a cat at this time, but didn’t want to disappoint their son. A friend told them about us. Though we’re really over extended now already, we agreed to take the kitty on, if they would go with us to the vet and pay for the vaccination. Not sure what to expect, they met David with Chopper at our local train station and headed off to the vet together. The vet explained that Chopper was not the 4 month old kitten that they had thought, but closer to a year old in age. Chopper was thin and suffering from an upper respiratory infection. David talked with the family about how many of these stray and abandoned kitties go long periods without food, which effects their development, and also about what our group is trying to do, to help stray and abandoned cats living so poorly on the streets. In the end, we received a very kind note from the family expressing gratitude for our work, and for what we were doing for Chopper (named for the student’s favorite anime character). This little kitty turns out to be the sweetest thing. He is constantly affectionate and has adjusted readily to shelter life. On our list of possible Tokyo transfers, hopefully he’ll soon be featured on our photos of adoption updates, and living happily in a home of his own.