Making New Friends

Missing little Oliver who came in so bony and sick but went out to his new placement a chubby little angel! He followed me around like a little puppy, and would begin to howl if he couldn’t find me for some reason, so the house seems too quiet these days without him. Daisy misses him too, as they’d become good friends. But he seems very happy in his new foster home with Shima, who is closer to his size. Lauren has already made a couple of nice web pages profiling the two kitties (see Lauren’s page for Oliver, and for Shima). She is devoted to getting rescues into new forever homes, and Oliver is a lucky little kitty to be in her care. 12 cats to Tokyo last Saturday, 8 of which went to adoptive homes! David was unbelievable in his determination to fit everyone in, after we had a sudden increase in Tokyo requests. Volunteers helped on both ends of the journey, but he and the kitties rode the train on their own.

Adopted were Coral, Gil, Ariel, Amber, Starbuck, Himawari, Tampopo, and Sakura. New foster transfers were Oliver, Shima, Marylebone, and Chelsea. A very long day, finishing the last home at around 10:00pm, but everything went well. David took a few pictures in the homes, and we’ve received word from everyone that the kitties are all settling in well. On this end, two of Louise’s rescues and two of Gina’s fosters moved to new foster homes. Merlin and Ninja are staying with Debbie. Kitties that have stayed with Debbie seem to find homes quickly, so we have our fingers crossed for these two black beauties! Jamie and Mornington Crescent are staying with Trudi, who adopted from us before and brought her kitties back to her home in the States. Currently trying to shift a couple of other placements around…we like to keep two kittens together whenever possible, as it helps them to get used to sharing. Kittens that have lived in single placements for too long, and have had to return to the shelter or have been adopted into multi-cat households seem to have a more difficult time adjusting. But, Japanese apartments can be tiny and two growing kittens can begin to wreak havoc. One idea is to relocate the two and to replace them with an older kitty from the shelter. In another case only one of two was recently adopted, so we want to get a companion placed there as soon as possible.

We received a call from someone quite far away, that had seen a young cat huddled in the rain outside, thin and with an obvious injury to it’s jaw. We asked her to take it in while we could work on finding a new placement. The rescuer’s cats and the new kitty had problems getting along, and we had a couple in our area who volunteered to take the new rescue on, so she came out to stay in Osaka. Cleo turns out to be an incredibly friendly kitty and her new foster parents find her delightful. They took her to the vet to have her jaw checked and x-rayed, but the injury has already healed and it was debatable as to whether or not a surgery would improve her quality of life. More importantly she was in too weak of a condition to withstand a surgery at this point. It was decided that waiting for her to gain some weight and then revisiting the issue would be the best plan. In the mean time she has a nice place to stay and recover. We’ve heard that she’s settled in well and the couple is enjoying having her there.

Had been wanting to catch a new feral that showed up at the TNR area near my English classroom building, but he always seemed to disappear directly after we made an appointment for neutering. On Monday he showed up at the feeding area with a cold and I decided that I’d catch him and worry about an appointment afterward. We don’t like to keep non-socialized cats in the shelter any longer than necessary, since there’s always a risk that the stress will have a negative impact on their health. Without a previous appointment, we can’t know when the vet will be able to fit us in, but I wasn’t sure when I’d see Hooli (short for Hooligan, since he’d begun fighting with our other resident males!) again, and I wanted to get some antibiotics into him to help with the cold. He’s now had a few days worth of antibiotics, and is sounding much less stuffy, though we’ve now been able to see a cut under his chin that we hadn’t seen before. Have requested an appointment and now waiting to see when we’ll be able to get him in. He’s unhappy to be here but is eating, so he should be alright waiting for a bit longer.

I finished my children’s Halloween parties on Saturday, and then met with an NPO accountant on Sunday. Lots of great ideas for better organization and fund raising. We’re always so busy rescuing, rehoming, and problem solving, that the organization end doesn’t get enough attention. Many of the cat issues are obviously desperate, and there’s always a new situation to take the place of the previous one. We’ll never end up having the extra time to sort out paper work, but it just has to become a priority. Hoping to make some headway this weekend.

I came down with a cold Sunday evening, which is still hanging in there. Trying to get some rest whenever possible, but have a terrible cough that keeps me awake and scares the cats. Taking a variety of supplements as well as cold medicine, and waiting until something eventually kicks in.

Want to mention Lisa, one of several people we’re currently helping with kitten rescue. She’s got a blog up about Konki, the kitten she rescued, with video and other interesting bits. We’re happy to help provide advice and/or loan materials to people wanting to rescue the kittens that they find in need. Remember that you may have only one chance to pick the kitten up–they can’t survive for long outside on their own. Pick it up, and then feel free to contact us about how to care for a rescue until a placement can be found. And, for advice on a way to make a simple secure carrier, using stuff from the 100 yen store, check out this page.