New rescue on Friday...I was on the way to the store, before heading to
class. I saw a young black female cat sitting near the big road, on a
wall at the corner of a parking lot. I could see that someone had put
down a food dish previously, but there was no shelter nearby, and the
cat was crying continuously. She wasn't in bad shape, physically,
though she has a small patch of skin trouble on her face. It's hard to
tell if she was recently abandoned and someone else had begun feeding
her, or if the person who abandoned her was coming back to feed her.
But it was no place for a cat to live--no shelter, except under cars,
and too close to busy traffic. We had to trap her initially, and had
thought to spay/return her. But once in the shelter for a couple of
days, we've determined that she's friendly, and adoptable. She went for
her spay operation on Saturday. We've named her Shana, and are letting
her stay out of the cage in the kitten room, as she's continued to cry
and seems to be suffering from stress. Better today, more and more
relaxed, but a little growly in proximity of other cats.
Back to the vet (our regular one, this time) with
Chobi who is now active and seems healthy other than a renewed bout of diarrhea. Soooo
frustrating, as we are feeding her the highest quality of food we can
find here, keeping her separate in her own large cage, and keeping the
cage absolutely clean. Still no bacteria or parasites in her poop, and
the vet says that he can't feel a blockage or abnormality in her
intestines. We're back to medicine and a reduced diet, which causes her
to fret constantly about food. The vet has no ideas about where to go
from here, which has us worried. At least she isn't showing signs of
anemia or dehydration, and has gained a good amount of weight. I wonder
if it could be some kind of food allergy, but we've already tried such
a variety of different foods...I'd try switching her to food we prepare
ourselves, but we don't have access to the necessary vitamins and other
supplements that we'd need in that case. If she doesn't improve soon,
I'd like to have her spend some more time at the clinic, so that the
vet might be better able to evaluate her.
The two
little newbies staying at the shelter, now named
Hansel and
Gretel, are
doing fine. Hansel had conjunctivitis when he came in, which we are treating regularly with eye drops. He seems to be responding well, with greatly reduced swelling and discharge, though we're a bit concerned by the continued cloudiness of his eyes. The vet checked him out on Saturday and added interferon to his drops, so hoping that improves things. Gretel is a round ball of fur, and has warmed up to human touch. Neither seems to miss their mother at all, and both are always
sleeping, eating, or playing happily in their cage. We're focusing on
getting the bigger kittens into homes as quickly as possible, so it's a
relief that these little ones are doing well. Also a relief that we
could place their 3 siblings in foster care. One of our volunteers went
out to
the site we rescued them from and picked up 4 female cats for
spaying on Saturday, along with Shana. Not sure if the mother of the
newbies was in that lot, but we'll be going out there at least several
more times, over the next few weeks.
Skippy, also from that site is a
lovely little boy. He couldn't be friendlier and reminds me of
Michael,
with his loud regular purr, whenever I walk into the kitten room.
Went
out to Costco on Sunday for School party Halloween candy, food, and
shelter supplies. My student and her husband drove me and my friend
out, so the 2 hour trip gave us a nice chance to catch up. However, it
ended up being more time than we bargained for...We got a flat tire on
the way there, which was my first time to ever pull over on the side of
a Japanese highway! I almost never even see a car pulled over on
highways here, since due to strict car inspection policies, most of the
cars on the road are in excellent condition--though I guess you can
never avoid the accidental tire puncture! I have to say that the
highway assistance we received was amazing.
Photos from my side of the
highway experience...
David brought Rose and
Daisy to their new home (and their new Amanda!) today. I will miss dear
Rosey, who is such a snuggle-bug, but I am so happy for these two.
Amanda is an amazing find, and David reports that he is thrilled after
having met her. I imagine that news will help Amanda and Kevin, the
previous very kind caretakers, to feel better about the two kitties'
futures. The trip out was long, and the bus David was on landed in some
bad traffic. He still needs to meet Gina to pick up Josie (potential
new adoption for her) and Alexandra (toileting rehabilitation, fingers
crossed), so he won't be back until after midnight. I've been on the
computer nonstop almost all day long. The good news is that there are
several new adoptions that we are processing this week (a relief in
light of recent new rescues). We were also able to find a reasonable
digital camera to start taking pictures with. I've been having to use
my cel phone since our digital camera broke some time ago, and it's
hard to take pictures in anything other than perfect light. I'm looking
forward to the improved technology, and think it will show off the
kitties much better, leading to even more interest in them. I took some
new photos of the kittens that are staying at the vet's clinic. Two
families are interested in adopting from this group, and we are
thinking of sending the rest for fostering in Tokyo. It's shaping up to
be either more than one trip or a two person gig, depending on how the
schedule works out, and the final number of kittens going out.