Up at 3:00am, which seems like the darkest part of the night, when you're caring for a sick one. Gave Sumi a drip, as she hasn't been able to drink today, and seemed so uncomfortable...she kept approaching water dishes, the faucet, the bathroom, etc., but couldn't drink anything. I'll head to the vet first thing in the morning to see if there's anything else we can do. He tried rinsing her mouth, when we were in Monday night, but it seems to only have made things worse. She's been here with us so long, that she's more our pet than shelter kitty, and I'm finding it very hard to let her go. 

Two reporters from a local cable TV station came out to do an interview with us on Sunday. Our new volunteer also came out, and ended up being a big help with translation! We spent some time talking about what we do, had a tour of a couple of our enclosures, and went out to look at the Biwako TNR site. We finished everything by taking Salem to his new home, and filming that as well. I thought the reporters seemed really interested in putting together a complete story, and I was pleased to have been able to cover so much ground in one day. The person who translates my blog on the website has volunteered to help with any remaining questions regarding translation, as we did the adoption part of the interview without Japanese. Looking forward to seeing the finished product, and excited to have another chance to get the word out about spay/neuter, before spring is upon us. Still have to work out the details regarding our flier events for Spay Day International. We have a few new volunteers on board, and we'll have some help from animal control, so it looks like things should come together nicely.

It was also a good chance to check up on the Biwako site, and Nigel, who seems to be doing well there. He came right up to us, with his pals in tow, happy to be on film! The feeder that goes there regularly doesn't come until around 4:00 or 5:00pm, and we arrived around 2:00, so everyone was quite hungry. We decided to feed everyone ourselves, which was a chance to get a better look at the cats that came out. The 5 that we saw looked good, though one had an eye stuck closed from an upper respiratory infection. We'll go out again on Wednesday, to try to meet with the feeder, as there were two cats missing. Sadly, we found that another had clearly died, though from no obvious cause. I know how dangerous life outside can be for cats, even under monitored and cared for conditions. If we could take every last one in we would, but of course we can't. We just have to do our best to give them the best chance possible, under the circumstances. I'm hoping that the feeder out there will have some information for us, so that we'll know better how to proceed.

Salem's new home is really nice (check out the new pictures on his page)! He has a new kitty friend there, that moved in shortly before he did, and she's all black, too. They got along together without too much ruffled fur, at first introductions, so I imagine they will be fast friends in no time! Salem is quite attached to David, though actually he is such a friendly little thing, he'll hop into the arms of anyone who happens to come into the kitten room! We were a little surprised to see him stick so close to David in the new surroundings. He sat on David's lap and then made short journeys out to explore, returning to survey the room from his safe zone. He tried out the bed, the litter box, and the toys--always a good settling in sign. We heard that he was a bit nervous the first night, but is now running around having a great time. Looking forward to seeing pictures of him settled into his new beautiful digs. Added pictures from Sunday to the January photo page, and will begin working on February!

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