Picture Purrrfect

Sunday, October 25, 2:02am
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 we’ve been adding to her food. 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 two 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.