Cold worse this week, so home from classes Wednesday. David came back
from Tokyo Monday, after a successful trip! 7 kittens to homes, 4 in
foster placements, 2 of which are being evaluated for adoption. Willy
and Alice went to Paul and Kyoko who are pulling out all of the stops
in providing these two with top notch care! They have considered every
aspect from food to toileting and are regularly evaluating the kitties'
adjustment. Lucky kitties to have such concerned and dedicated parents!
Willy, a talkative one, is probably having the time of his life, now
that he has someone who is completely focused on what he has to say.
And Alice, who sadly received little to no care when she was an injured
kitten, now has a loving attentive family to anticipate her
difficulties. Ai chan went to Tyler, who she took to immediately upon
introduction. A bit of a wall flower at the shelter, David was happily
surprised to see her blossom in a home environment. Chiroru and Kitkat
went to Laura-Marie and her family. They've never had a kitty before,
so are getting used to the care required, and are deciding about
adoption. In the mean time, Laura-Marie is keeping both kittens in her
room, and is so very excited to be their new "mommy". Finally, Sequoia
and Snickers are staying with Angela, who is one of our new foster care
takers in Tokyo. Her cat was a little surprised at the newcomers at
first, but can't deny the excitement they bring, and is beginning to
warm up to the idea of having guests of a small furry variety. Ghana
stayed back here at the shelter, since she had a difficult time moving
here from the clinic, and we were worried about potential adjustment
problems at the foster placement. She's calmed down now, and though
still a little nervous, she will probably go out to Tokyo at the next
opportunity.
Birdie
came back with David, since her foster family is getting ready to leave
the country. They've really gone above and beyond in the care that
they've given Birdie, as her health has really deteriorated from FIV
issues. We're also really grateful to Laurie, one of our Tokyo
volunteers, who cared for Birdie when her foster family was away, and
helped with medical treatment. Birdie came back with a care package of
her toys, favorite snacks, meds, etc. and it's clear that everyone
wanted to give her the best life possible. When I took out the box to
get her something today, she sniffed the air and got very excited,
clearly remembering. We're so glad that she had the chance to have a
real home. We decided to give Birdie a few days to readjust to life
here with us, before going to our vet for his evaluation. David took
her to the vet this morning, and he's concerned about balancing
treatment for her anemia with treatment for her kidney failure. She's
fairly hydrated now, so we'll wait for a few days to do a drip, and see if
we can get her to eat some AD in the mean time.
Chobi
has responded really well to the yogurt (thanks for the advice!!). I
can't believe the difference, in just a few days. She's filled out more
and just looks better, in general. Still some diarrhea, but it's not as
watery, and no drips at all. We also have been able to stop starving
her, which is a big relief. She loves coming out to play with the new
kittens, in the kitten room, and races around after them--she has so much energy! After all of
the health problems, it's
great to see her playing happily.
Volunteers
came out Tuesday to clean the enclosures--they did a fantastic job, and
it's such a big help when we are so busy with new kittens these days. The
new crew of TNR rescues have almost all started to warm up to us
now.
Jack, the last little ginger, that had to be caught in a trap, is
still a bit shy.
Salem gets the prize for friendliest, and loves to sit
on David's lap or shoulder whenever he goes into see the kittens. The little tortoise shell from this group was in foster care, but has come back due to problems with socialization. Her caregiver has been a trouper, trying to get her to come out of her shell (so to speak!), but was concerned with the lack of progress. The window of opportunity for socialization can be so short with these kittens that are born outside, so David made the trip out to Nagoya to check in and to pick up the tortoise shell. The other two kittens being cared for there have been doing very well, which is great news for their adoption potential. Still
no headway on
the 2 older feral kittens, so we sent them for spay and
release this weekend. I just heard back from the volunteer that one of the kittens had some problem with her uterus, and it was lucky that we got her in quickly. We did hear that the feeder plans to bring them inside the family's home to try to see what he can do for them. This is the best case scenario for us, because with
a new rescue on Friday and another tonight, we are bursting at the seams.
Some good news from a person that we were
advising long distance...the one orphan newborn kitten that survived from
the litter that she rescued and was trying to save, is doing very well. She's
decided to adopt him, has named him Buster, and he could not be cuter--that's his photo up top!
Also got some cute pictures of Max, now Cookie, who was adopted last
December. And, new photos with happy update on Tiga, now Tora. He's a kitten from the nursery page, that we helped to rehome from a local TNR project. In other good news, our local home center chain has been discounting some cat food, and has carts with lots of half-off stuff. I stopped in one of the stores out where I had a Halloween party for English class today, and bought 4 bags of Science Diet kitten food at half off, which seemed like an amazing and timely find! On the way back, my fellow teacher and I spotted a new young cat on our road...looks to be a recent abandonment, but not quite friendly enough for me to pick up right away. We brought a trap back out and caught her within a short time. Will have to see how she does over the next few days, before we know what happens next. Will have her picture up on the rescue list tomorrow.