Trading lakes and faces

This is a kitty from Kesennuma, one of the hardest hit seaside towns in Northern Japan. Her guardian is being evicted this week because she has been hiding her cats in no-pets housing, and she had no one to turn to but animal control. Luckily, they called us to see if we could help. We're expecting all six kitties at the JCN Inawashiro shelter on Thursday. We'll be fostering 5 and finding a new home for one. Please contact us, if you are able to help us create more space in the shelter by fostering any of this group or by adopting/fostering one of our shelter kitties waiting for homes.

I've been in Shiga all week, meeting with the accountant for our NPO year end report, and working on other organizational details. A whole new set of faces greet me here everyday, some of them my old pals. I love seeing Teddy and Albert...2 feral buddies that have been living outside the shelter for around 10 years. These two boys are inseparable, and even though we cannot get nearly close enough to touch them, they are still our boys. Sometimes they visit us out on the ledge of the second story window, which is a favorite sunny nap spot. From there they hop up onto the neighboring temple roof.

 Lots of other sweeties to see at the Hikone shelter...I was surprised to see how friendly Leeland and Emily have become. The last time I visited, these two little Fukushima rescues acted like they had never seen me before. Now, I couldn't go anywhere near the play area without one or the other asking for attention. Leeland remains as big a fan of David as ever.

Fosters Aimu and Konpei have loved life in the enclosures. They can often be seen showing off, in a good place to get attention from passersby. Zelda has grown into a sleek upper story lounge cat.

I always think how nice the outdoor enclosures are for the kitties, especially in the warmer weather.  Everyone enjoys being out and about, and they get so much more exercise than our babies in Fukushima do. Now that we have a new little outdoor enclosure there, too, hopefully that will change!

The biggest thrill has been seeing how happy Temperence is. This is a kitty that once broke my heart, at first sight. Trying so desperately to survive all on her own in one of the restricted evacuated areas, she showed up one day at one of our feeding stations. Look at her then and now! 

She is doing so well, and seems to be a happy healthy cat--playing with toys and basking in the sun. Whenever I see her, I am so grateful that we were there to find her, in time. I'm reminded again why we are there, and how many others depend on us for their survival.

No matter where I am, I seem to end up at the vet! This time I went with Moonshadow and Celeste. Moonshadow was there to check how her mouth was doing after her surgery and biopsy. Happy news--not cancer. Celeste continues to recover from her upper respiratory infection. On another day, our vet, all around nice guy that he is, helped me fill out some forms in Japanese. 

Back to Fukushima soon...have been checking into Inawashiro happenings, via Takumi's blog. New puppies and more! It is always hard for me to leave either of these amazing places. What a strange and lucky life I have, going back and forth between 2 animal shelters. At the end of the day, I may be tired, and some things may have gone wrong, but I never doubt that I am making a difference. I never doubt that the animals in Fukushima still desperately need us there, as well as their guardians. And somehow I board another bus, train or car to head back out. (More photos in my May album on Facebook)