Alex's "Rising Sun" Animal Response

Ryoma, the Trans-Pacific Shiba aka Shibathon 2011

Early last week I received an email from the amazing Amber (of Bayou Rescue fame). Her friend had a friend (had a friend had a friend...) who was looking for a Shiba Inu and Amber wondered if I knew of any who needed a home. At Inawashiro we didn't have any shiba who were available (several shiba being housed at Inawashiro but all fosters for evacuated owners) so I contacted Kate, another long-time volunteer for animals in Japan. She had pulled several animals from various hokenjo for us (Taro, Pitan, and Setsuo among many others) and I thought she might know of a Shiba in need. 

Kate took this opportunity to transport a dog back to the U.S. and ran with it. She contacted her friend, Angelina** who found a Shiba at the Ozato hokenjo in Okinawa who was to be euthanized the day that I contacted her. Luckily, he was picked up by his owner just before a volunteer was sent to rescue him. There were several other shiba available from the same hokenjo, but one little guy stood out. He was unbelievably friendly, got along great with other dogs, and none of the hokenjo workers could believe he had ended up at an animal control facility. He had been there for 2 months having been abandoned by prior owners. While we don't know how he came to be in hokenjo, he knows English commands so he might be from a foreign family who evacuated after the earthquake. 

Contact was made with the director of the hokenjo and his seal of approval was given on Sunday afternoon. The friendly Shiba could be handed over on Monday morning. Here is where his story gets to be crazy on so many levels. Kate raced down to the pound before work and met a volunteer who had the authority to retrieve animals. She then sped the 20 miles to the nearest English speaking veterinary office. The little dog passed his health check with flying colours. Angelina tagged Kate in the vets office and then drove 25 miles back down South to meet all the quarantine stipulations. 

Ryoma right after being pulled from Ozato. Photo courtesy of Angelina Brewer. 

Ryoma on the way to get checked into quarantine at the airport. Photo courtesy of Angelina Brewer.

After quarantine, new friends! Photo courtesy of Angelina Brewer

Go team Shibathon!!! Photo courtesy of Angelina Brewer.

With this deed done 4 hours later saw Ryoma (the Shiba's new name) back up to another volunteer's house to wait for Kate to get off work. That evening Ryoma was in great spirits. He played with toys, other dogs and people. Bright and early the next morning Kate packed him up and headed down to Naha airport where another Marine couple were waiting to accompany him on their 3 hour flight to Tokyo. At the other end they checked him into the only pet hotel in Narita airport and there Ryoma spent his last night in Japan.

 

Meanwhile, I had been desperately trying to arrange with Continental Airlines and the Narita Airport Quarantine station to set up an appointment for Ryoma and three cats to come home with me.

 

Thursday December 8th saw me back out in Namie for what I had hoped would be my final foray into radiation country. Susan joked that we might find some cat for me to take home with me on the plane. When Susan and I stopped in Kawamata to talk with the Shigihara-san sisters at their hair parlor a local woman asked us to pick up a cat and two kittens that were living on her property but were not her own. It took us several hours of picking up the mother cat and trapping before we had caught both kittens and the mother. By then it was too late to finish the feeding route and we would have to come back the next day. 

Gorgeous mama cat named Melanie by Selena.

Diggory, tuxedo male kitten. 

Melanie and Sunshine, her female kitten. 

 

On Friday the 9th Susan and I went back out into the field and Selena took Melanie and the kittens with her to Tokyo. Once we finished in Namie I prepared to leave and boarded a bus to Tokyo after tearful goodbyes (and lots of snow). The always awesome Anna met me at the station in Shinagawa and we went out for one drink (which turned into 4 drinks and tequila shots) at her favorite watering hole, The Dickens, where the owner wouldn't let us pay a cent. It was awesome. 

On Saturday we biked around central Tokyo and met up at a nearby dog park with Mai, one of Japan Cat Network's best foster/volunteer/superwomen. She has been fostering Nana, one of the Minami Soma dogs for months and meets up with the foster of Hana (Nana's sister) regularly so that the dogs can see each other. I was so beyond thrilled to see Hana and Nana again that I maybe took too many pictures...

Nana..she remembers me!

Love

Anna, Mai, and Sarah with a variety of dogs. 

Hana with her superb foster mom. 

Ever the photographer Anna and one of the girls (they are virtually identical..hard to discern which this is)

Sunset and Docomo building from the dog park. 

Tokyo sunset from the dog park. 

I spent the rest of my time in Tokyo at E-chan's apartment, Sudhir's apartment, and at Sylvia's desperately trying to contact the airport and Continental about the animals. Also, Melanie got loose at Mai's place (don't worry, she was caught again on the 15th) It was less than relaxing. 

Finally, on my last day in Japan, I found out from Continental that they had recently changed their policy about in-cabin animals on planes. I wouldn't be able to take the kittens with me (probably for the better since at the time Melanie was still loose). They also told me I should have booked Ryoma for cargo two weeks in advance even though this policy wasn't listed anywhere on their website. Needless to say I was in freak out mode and cried a lot. 

Fortunately, I was with Sylvia who is really good at getting what she wants from people on the phone. She changed my ticket to United Airlines and we were able to book Ryoma on as cargo the same day!!! Moral of this story, never use Continental. Their food blows and they make bringing animals helacious. 

It was a mere 6 hours before my flight's departure by the time we had sorted everything out with the airline and ticket change!!!! I had to get to Narita, a 2 hour journey from Sylvia's place in Yokosuka, get Ryoma from the pet hotel, go to quarantine, check in, and make it to my gate. It seemed a virtually impossible task!! Luckily, Kate had arranged for a volunteer, Lisa, and her daughter to meet me at Narita to help with pushing around my oversized luggage and dog crate. I quite literally couldn't have done it all without Lisa's help. She met me at the pet hotel and aided in picking up Ryoma. 

Ryoma, myself, and a hotel attendant. 

Lisa helped me navigate to the quarantine office, an exceedingly difficult task involving walking outside around the terminal trying to find the right place, asking information for help, and getting stuck in an elevator when the doors were a centimenter too small to remove the crate. Luckily, the actual quarantine paperwork signing took mere minutes and we were on our way to check in at the next terminal (another fun adventure getting on the bus from terminal 2 to terminal 1). 

Lisa and her cute-as-can-be daughter with Ryoma at check-in. 

Checking in done, I made it to my terminal with just 15 minutes to spare before departure. I was (again) in the center of the center on my plane so sleep was pretty impossible. We arrived at LAX ahead of schedule and I had to pick up Ryoma and take him to the TSA desk so that he could be "frisked." On the way I stopped to walk him and we were approached by a half dozen people interested in his breed and how we managed to make it all the way from Tokyo. Ryoma took it in stride with lots of tail wagging and hand licks. 

Ryoma at LAX!

Ryoma and I made it through two more airplane flights (LAX to D.C. Dulles, Dulles to RDU) and arrived home at 11:15 pm EST. Exhausting. Ryoma somehow managed to not pee or poop in his crate for the entire 24 hours he had been in there. It's only the second day that he has been here in North Carolina and he is already fitting in very well in my home with my dog and cats. Ryoma is available for adoption and we are seeking donations to cover the costs incurred for his transport. 

To apply to adopt go to this page.

To help reimburse the many volunteers whose time and (limited) funds paid for this amazing rescue mission go to this page. 

Ryoma at home in North Carolina.

 

**Angelina Brewer started Doggie Orphan's Great and Small when she was based in Newport, North Carolina. It kept her very busy and she has a strong volunteer staff. Her husband is a Marine and got orders to come to Okinawa, Japan, a tour that will last three years. They uprooted their family 3 young children and two dogs (base housing limits) and moved to Japan. At first Angelina was interested in joining an animal volunteer group but when things didn't get done or didn't get done efficiently she looked into making a branch of her Stateside shelter here in Okinawa. She was able to do so based on her tax exempt status in the U.S. She knew wanted to contribute positively to the local community and with her skill set she was in a perfect position to do so. She established links with the prefectural pound that gasses their intake after 5 days of holding. Her aim was to spare the fate of the animals that were admitted. She organised foster families among her military friends she found new families for the dogs, puppies, cats and kittens she supported other local (Japanese) shelters by donating surplus food and pet items. Since receiving her permission to operate Doggie Orphans great and Small in February she has rehomed almost 100 animals.

Into the 20 km Zone

We were  invited to enter the 20 km exclusion zone on July 16th and 17th by the Fukushima Veterinary Association (VAFFA) along with several other animal rescue and welfare groups. This was, obviously, an opportunity that we couldn't say "no" to even though we were still in the midst of the panleukopenia outbreak. Animal rescue groups haven't been able to enter the 20 km zone since the end of April when the Japanese government made it illegal to enter the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. At that time there were still tens of thousands of animals in farms, in homes, and in the streets. We knew that individuals were sneaking into the 20 km zone to feed and rescue animals, but we had no idea if we would find many animals still alive 3 months later.

The morning of Saturday July 16th, myself and other volunteers met at a gym in Kawauchi, a village near the east coast of Japan and close to the 20 km border. We arrived fairly early and waited as the other groups arrived. 

A preponderance of white vehicles among the animal rescuers. 

While we waited, we talked with our fellow rescuers and I was very surprised to find that virtually none of them had any animal catching experience. Most were just groups who had been putting down food in evacuated areas or who volunteered at shelters. One group was just a man and a woman invited as individuals for some reason. The man was American with no animal experience and said he was just along for the ride. He and a couple of others asked me to show proper dog catching techniques and I did a demo. I wish I had a picture of me crouching to the ground and inching backwards telling them that "presenting your ass is like a friendly 'hello' to a dog." 

A half a dozen cameramen and press people showed up shortly after we arrived and they filmed us rearranging stuff in the Hi-ace. They also wanted to interview us and get a lot of information, but we kept fairly quiet as we were told we had to be tight lipped by the veterinarians of VAFFA. The press wanted us to take their cameras into the 20 km but we obviously weren't allowed to do that as the vets in charge had said we couldn't even have our own cameras. VAFFA dangled over our heads the possibility of being allowed back into the 20 km at a later date as long as we didn't let anyone know what we were doing. 

When the veterinarians got to the gym we had a big official meeting during which they told us our location and veterinarian assignments. Each car had a veterinarian in it who would be making decisions about which animals we were taking and whatnot. We also had lists of animals that owners had requested we find. The press taped the whole time and it was very official and drawn out with two of the veterinarians in charge speaking at length and then a government representative. People from the nuclear division were there, as well. Intense!

Luckily, it turned out that we were allowed to take pictures inside the 20 km as long as we didn't post them publicly until allowed to do so. They've never said we could do so, but it's been months and we haven't been let back in to the 20 km so I'm posting them, meh!

Our group was designated to work in Futaba, a small town where 90% of the houses had been destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami. Luckily, reports stated that the radiation was low in Futaba so we didn't have to wear the Tyvek suits. Very fortunate considering it was around 85 degrees that day. 

Tyvek suits make me sweat profusely. You can't tell but I'm drenched in this picture courtesy of Selena Hoy.

In one van was myself, two others, and a senior vet. In the other was two volunteers and the junior vet.

 

The two cars drove together in case of car emergency. I was relieved that before we even started out the two vets told us that they planned to go into 20 km, come out for the radiation screening, and go back into the 20 km. This was even though we were explicitly only supposed to go into the 20 km for a few hours and then come back out for screening. I'm not sure if the other vets were as eager to help animals as ours, but ours were clearly willing to secretly break the rules to help animals. 

The drive in was uneventful. We only saw one cow that had been set free. She looked ok except she was covered in flies. We did have to pass through an absolutely terrifying tunnel. The lights were out so it was pitch black and felt like the longest tunnel I've ever been in.

Basically the tunnel from 28 Days Later. Dog food is not a good weapon against zombies. 

Though there was a good chunk of time where we never saw any other people, I was surprised at how many trucks were driving around. Rarely were we the only ones on the main road. It turns out that the government had planned for this to be a weekend when they would allow a lot of people in. Construction workers and buses full of evacuees returning for their alloted 2 hour time at home passed us by. 

Evacuee bus. 

Entering the 20 km means entering an area where earthquake damage has been largely unaddressed and there were many precarious road surfaces that we crossed and downed buildings and rubble. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. 

The hot junior vet that I had a total crush on.

Collapsed train bridge.

As for the animal rescues:
We first stopped when I saw a brown cat. We put down some food because I wasn't entirely sure we would be able to catch it since it didn't seem super interested in wet food. Nearby was a pet store and we inspected there. All of the cages had been opened that we could see, but we weren't allowed to go inside per VAFFA. 

We continued driving to several houses where cats had been left behind. The owners had requested that we search for their pets. The first one, the cat had been an indoor cat, but the back doors had been thrown open (probably by animal rescuers) and it was nowhere to be seen. The next one was also nowhere to be found. We stopped at a house where a dog had been left behind. We could hear it barking and circling us, but never saw it. 

On the way back into town to look at more properties with left behind pets we saw a dog across a field. We tried to catch her but she was wary of us and stayed far away. We set dog traps at both of the houses with dogs. 

After setting the dog traps I caught a cat in a trap who was skinny, but otherwise healthy. She was sitting by the side of the road and dove into a gutter when we pulled up. I put the trap in the gutter and within 5 minutes we had caught her. The vets let me take charge of setting the trap because they didn't have much experience catching animals. It's nice when people acknowledge that I'm way better than them (jk!).

It was the end of our alloted rescue time so we went to Minami Soma, another coastal city near the 20 km zone. We were screened for radiation by the nuclear division along with the cat in the trap who didn't care one bit what happened as long as we kept feeding her. We were all normal according to the geiger counters!

A camera crew was there at the screening center and they were very interested in why I was volunteering for Japan so I answered some questions, but I doubt it was interesting enough to make it onto the nightly news (though if anyone has seen a video of me looking sweaty in Japan, let me know!)

After the screening we went (secretly) back into the 20 km with the veterinarians. We returned to the gas station and put down a cat trap. We also checked the dog traps (no one was inside). While we were at one house, we found puppies. We pulled out 5 puppies from underneath the house. They were all skinny and had very pale gums. I suggested that we go ahead and deworm them, but the vets said that we didn't know that they had parasites (that kind of annoyed me, you can pretty much assume that puppies who have lived outdoors their entire lives have parasites and deworming them isn't detrimental even if they don't have them). We couldn't catch the female dog, though, but we figured she was the mom. 

Puppies!!! Later name Lily, Emi, Penny, Gus, and Milo. 

We went back to the Kawauchi gym to meet up with the other rescue groups and vets. Two volunteers and the senior vet departed from us at Kawauchi and the rest of us went to Koriyama to a Fukushima shelter. The government-run shelters in Fukushima that were created to deal with the disaster-affected animals are notoriously terrible. Dogs kept in cramped cages, cats constantly sick, etc. This shelter, however, is run by a private group and is quite small (and clean and well-kept) compared to the others.

Unfortunately, when we arrived all of the vets were in a fluster unloading animals from traps and carriers. I put our puppies into a kennel, but was concerned because no one was giving them any food or any medical attention. I had fed them kitten milk in the car (I brought a whole medical tackle box, but the veterinarians didn't actually bring any medicine. When I told them about my box they said not to tell the head vets, but that we could use the stuff if we needed) and one black puppy was less genki (energetic and healthy) than the others. At the shelter she was sitting in the back of the cage by herself not moving. I was really worried and I talked to 3 veterinarians, but they all either couldn't understand me or were too concerned with other things to be bothered with a lethargic puppy. Fran (who had been invited by VAFFA to join in on the rescues along with Kambe sensei) and myself secreted her outside to my medical tackle box and administered some subcutaneous fluids and oral glucose. She perked up almost immediately!

Still, we were very concerned that medical issues would go unaddressed in the shelter. We saw several lactating female dogs without puppies meaning that inexperienced rescue groups had picked them up not knowing that the puppies would potentially die without their mothers. One dog right across from the puppies I suspected had scabies. We talked with Natsuhori sensei, the veterinarian in charge of the whole operation. He said that they weren't going to register the puppies as found pets since the owners almost certainly didn't want them. We could take them the next day!!! 

On Sunday July 17th we had to get to Kawauchi super early because Natsuhori sensei wanted groups to leave earlier in the day when it would be less hot so that we could find more animals. We left around 7 am on Sunday. Natsuhori had told us that we had to go to Minami Soma between 12 and 1 or we wouldn't be allowed back into the zone. The vets initially wanted to have the vans travel together like the previous day, but I explained that it would be better to split up and have one van check the traps we left and one van do food drops. So we had two volunteers and the young vet in one car doing food drops and the senior vet, and I in the trap checking van. 

We split up straight away and our van went a different direction than we had gone previously to get to Futaba. We went through the town of Ono where we found a big group of dogs near the train station. They definitely had started a pack mentality and were quite fearful of us. We couldn't get anywhere near them, though we did do a low speed chase through the streets after one dog who seemed most interested in us with me hanging out the back of the van with a slip lead (another instance where I wish there was a picture of me doing something ridiculous).

When we gave up on chasing the dogs we noticed a black cat sitting in an office that was wide open. I'm not sure why, but the vet gave me permission to go in and get the cat even though we weren't supposed to enter property. So I went in (not really thinking, I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep) without anything to catch the cat. He sat there until I got close and tried to dart out but I caught him with my bare hands! He was skinny, but not emaciated and we put him into a carrier easily. 

He has since been named Chaka Khan and is now living at the Japan Cat Network Shelter. More pictures can be seen of him here courtesy of Carol Kosloski. 

In Futaba, both of the dog traps that we had placed had had the food eaten out of them, but no dogs caught! The traps don't work very well. We also didn't catch a cat at the house with the puppies and mother dog. However, I was able to hand catch the mother dog. She was underneath a shed on the property and I heard her barking. I slowly fed her wet food moving it farther and farther away from the shed until her head was far enough out for me to get a slip lead on her. The vet seemed very impressed and the dog was clearly a sweet dog, just super fearful. 

Here she is in the background with her puppies lined up adorably. She has since been named Sachi and is being adopted this weekend as we haven't found her original owners. 

We finished looking at the various houses where animals had been reported to have been left behind, but again found none. Susan called to say that they had caught a different cat in the trap left overnight at the gas station. They also caught the cat we had seen the day before when Susan re-set the trap. 

The skinnier cat has been named Luba and he is at the Japan Cat Network Shelter. He had hair loss and was emaciated when we picked him up in the 20 km and neither of these issues has resolved despite multiple vet clinic visits. We are not sure if this is due to the radiation or something else. More pictures can be found here courtesy of Carol Kosloski. 

The second cat caught by Susan et. al. He is now named Rufus and has changed from a standoffish guy to a sweetheart during his time at Japan Cat Network. His left eye was damaged long before we found him and scar tissue built up over his cornea leading to the bluish color. More pictures here, again, courtesy of Carol Kosloski.

Susan's van continued doing food drops and mine headed into Namie to look for an animal that a local had reported to have seen. We passed Fran and Kambe sensei on the way. They were looking for a golden retriever which they never found, unfortunately. We also didn't find the reported animal, but did many food drops for hungry cats. At one location (the Namie Boat, it's a restaurant with a big boat beside it...creative naming!) I had the driver stop because I saw a cat. The cat I saw ran away immediately when I got out of the van, but I heard meowing across the way and a silver female came trotting right up to me and begged to be picked up and fed. She was soooo sweet. I picked her up and put her in a carrier and she talked to me all the way to our radiation check point in Minami Soma.

She's since been named Vega at Japan Cat Network and more pictures of her can be found here, courtesy of Carol Kosloski. 

On the way to Minami Soma we drove along the coast so I captured some pictures of the tsunami damage. 

This empty field used to be filled with houses like those in the background. 

A van tossed blocks away from its origin by the tsunami.

Debris pile from the cleanup of the tsunami damage. In some places the pile was as high as a 3 story building. 

At the radiation screening center in Minami Soma we learned that the animals picked up that day were going to the first Fukushima shelter. This was the one which Susan had seen pictures of months previously and it was really horrendous. The vets for this mission had even said that the conditions were subpar but that it was being worked on. Susan managed to convince our vets to get Natsuhori sensei to let us take the cats so that they wouldn't have to go to the first Fukushima shelter. I'm not sure how it all happened (maybe they all liked us, maybe they wanted Susan to shut up, hah!), but we were allowed to take all of the cats and keep the mother dog since she was nursing the puppies. However, we were told that we absolutely couldn't tell any of the other groups who had participated in rescue that weekend or anyone at the Fukushima shelter that we were taking them because no other groups were allowed to take animals. We (and our rescued animals) got so lucky.

We still wanted to go to the Fukushima shelter to see the conditions, so we followed Fran and Kambe sensei. We parked our van far away so that no one would see the 4 cats and dog we had inside and left the air running. The shelter was not as bad as it was previously (per Susan), so they were indeed working on it. However, there were hundreds of animals and some of the dogs were in cages so small they couldn't stand up and turn around. They all seemed very hungry and many had medical issues that I noted that were clearly not being addressed (many eye and skin problems).

The veterinarians were helping to walk the dogs, but I doubt the dogs got walked regularly.

The cats were actually in better shape. They all had cleanish cages with litterboxes and there were several regular volunteers there that Susan talked to about putting lofts into the cages. They were really excited at the prospect of us bringing them lofts for the cats to sleep in and we later went to do so. The cats were much more comfortable after we added places for them to sleep away from their litter boxes. Even with the "improved" conditions, we weren't allowed into the "sick" building where they suspected they had canine and feline parvo. Who knows what lay in that building. 

Afterwards, Susan and I drove to Koriyama shelter to pick up the puppies. Here there was one man and a woman there taking care of the animals. All of the animals seemed really content with none of them making a peep (as opposed to the Fukushima City shelter where the roar of dogs barking was overwhelming). The man was apparently in charge and when we told him we were taking the pups he said he had to call his superior, but the call was quick and he confirmed that we could take them. We weren't able to take the cat we had brought in the day before because we'd never gotten official confirmation that we could take her, but we checked in on her and she was in a nice big cage by herself with multiple stories and she seemed quite content. 

So then we came back to Inawashiro and unloaded the mom and puppies. The cats had to stay in the car because of the panleukopenia, but the next day Susan and I drove them to Japan Cat Network in Shiga (more on that in my next post). 

Overall, I considered it a positive experience. I'm sure each team of rescuers had different veterinarians with different values, but the vets on our team basically let us do what we felt was appropriate in terms of stopping for every animal we saw to at least drop food. They helped us to remove the animals and prevent them from having to stay at the Fukushima City shelter. They let us set the traps and catch the animals because they recognized that we had the experience. I think there was a lot of mutual respect between us and this helped us to get what we wanted from Natsuhori sensei. They even bent the rules to allow for more rescue time. While it's definitely true that the Fukushima City shelter is in horrible shape, it was improving when we visited and the vets were working with the government on this. Regardless, many animals (52 was the official count, though this may not have included the ones that we took with us) were saved from the exclusion zone that weekend and a lot are resting comfortably at the Koriyama shelter while some are languishing in the Fukushima City shelter. Luckily, none of the languishing ones were "ours."

Oh also the radiation spiked to 40 microsieverts/hr at its highest in Ono. That was the highest I've ever see it 

Super Awesome Surgery Times!

Warning: This post has graphic surgery pictures. Not for the squeamish. Though, if you've read any of the other posts you should probably know by now that this work is just gross. 

 

The two weeks after we came down with panleukopenia are pretty hazy in my mind. It's a blur of Tamiflu, tears, and hopelessness. However, a bright spot came when a veterinarian arrived a week and a half after the outbreak began to stay for a few days!

Nabi sensei is one of the coolest people I've ever met. She's a Japanese woman who earned her D.V.M in Japan, but has has spent several years helping animals in Kenya! She's really knowledgeable about shelter and in-the-field medicine and she's not afraid to get her hands dirty. I want to grow up to be her!

Anyways, she came just when we needed her most and her arrival boosted our spirits and helped to lighten the load of providing veterinary care for dozens of sick cats. She also helped us with Taro's recovery. I had been really concerned about the fact that the shaving hadn't rid him of all of the maggots. She assessed him and told me that we'd done a fantastic job and just had to let him heal on his own with the help of the random pink liquid we sprayed on the affected areas. 

In fact, this picture is of Nabi sensei and dear Taro!

She's fiercely holding on to his neck to keep him from biting. Adorable little creep.

 

In addition to helping out tremendously with the panleuk and maggots, Nabi sensei came armed with an arsenal of medical supplies, including surgical materials. She was all prepared to rock out some spays and neuters with just Domitor and Propofol in Room D on top of a dog crate. And I got to be her assistant!!!

The first surgery we performed was on Cinnamon, a pregnant cat that we had picked up in Namie.

 

Side note: Everyone here at the Japan Cat Network Inawashiro base is of the opinion that cat and dog spay/abortions are necessary. There are already so many unwanted animals in the world. Why should we allow more to be born when we could go to any hokenjo and pick up dozens of baby animals about to be gassed to death? The resources that would be spent trying to keep embryos and neonates alive are better used on animals already in this world. 

 

This was the first spay/abort procedure I had ever sat in on so, to be honest, I was pretty intrigued. Another volunteer vet, Tsuge sensei, agreed to help with the surgery. 

Cinnamon after we prepped her. 

That's Nabi sensei with her hands all up in that incision. Tsuge sensei holds some hemostats!

Removing the uterus. 

Uterus and embryos are out. 

Closing. 

Watching over Cinnamon in recovery. 

 

It was so AWESOME! I had no idea that the uterus became so vascularized during pregnancy! I got to dissect the uterus and see the tiny embryos. It was beyond fascinating!!!!! I maybe use too many exclamation points when I talk about surgeries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, the spay took longer than we had hoped and, though Cinnamon recovered well, it was decided that we wouldn't do any more spays at Club LOHAS since we didn't have things like....isofluorane, endotrach tubes, ventilator, or any sort of monitoring equipment other than a stethescope. We would just stick to neuters from now on. 

The next day it was just Nabi sensei and I as Tsuge sensei only comes once in a blue moon. We decided to neuter the male dogs we had brought in at the end of June. We started with Sam, the biggest. While we prepped him for surgery we ran a heartworm test. By the time it was done running we were already halfway done with the neuter! Sam is heartworm positive but he still did well during surgery. 

Our second neuter for the day was Kangaroo, the dog with the two dislocated elbows. Soon after we sedated him he started responding poorly. I was monitoring with the stethescope and his heart beat became slow (a normal response to Domitor) and irregular (not so normal). It became clear why his heart was in distress when his heartworm test finished and he was not just positive but SUPER positive. A few minutes after I ausculted (word) the irregular heart beat Kangaroo stopped breathing. I had to start chest compressions to keep oxygen moving into his lungs while Nabi sensei quickened her pace to finish the neuter. He was reversed and waking up in less than 15 minutes, but it was so touch and go during the surgery that we were wary to do another heartworm positive dog. 

Kangaroo and his Propofol right before the cutting commenced. 

 

We had saved Choco, brother to Sam and Kangaroo, for last since he is a bit shy. Before beginning the surgery prep we ran the heartworm test. We didn't want to perform another risky surgery. By some miracle Choco was negative! He's one of only 3 dogs that we have picked up in Kawamata and Namie to not have heartworm disease! Thus, we rocked out the last neuter of the day in just a few minutes' time. 

Choco done in a jiffy. 

 

Nabi sensei extended her stay for several days to continue to help us. She gave me a bunch of meds and taught me how to use a few that I'd never seen before. She also put together a wonderful tackle box that I take with me into the field whenever we go to feed or pick up. 

Then, of course, this happened the day after she left. 

One of the kittens had an allergic reaction to Gentamicin eye drops. 

Luckily, Nabi sensei answered her phone and helped me pick the right steroid!

 

 

Outbreak

This post will explain why I stopped blogging so many months ago. Daily existence became difficult in the month before I left Japan the first time. Writing on the internet was a luxury I didn't have time for. This post will also explain why I've restarted blogging. I don't want the animals that we lost to be forgotten. I also want to pass on knowledge gained to help others dealing with Feline Panleukopenia. 

 

On Friday July 1 some of my favorite people came to visit Club LOHAS! Jim and Eija came from Tokyo/Yokota to help out by bringing human food and some other supplies. They were excited to come with me to Namie to continue scouting for more hungry cats to pick up. We headed out early that day for the exclusion zone, but it was overcast and there weren't many cats out. We went to the chicken coop to check on our girls and as we were filling up water buckets a local whom I had met before, Takahashi san, came to see us. He invited us for coffee and we followed him up to his house. He told us that a woman, Matsudaira san, in a neighboring town was taking care of many cats that had been left behind. He asked us to come with him to meet her to see how we could work together. 

We piled into the van and drove to meet Matsudaira san. She is a very kind older woman with a large family that lives in a modest house together. There are probably twice as many animals as people in there. She had recently found some kittens that she was concerned about. We promised to return a few days later with big bags of cat and dog food and some dewormer. It was quite late by the time we made it back to Inawashiro. 

As we were unloading, one of the volunteers that we had left behind to mind the shelter informed me that the black kitten, Shane, was lethargic and needed help. I sprinted to Room A where another volunteer was cuddling with him on a futon. I did a quick assessment and noted that he was super dehydrated, anemic, and nonresponsive. I started administering subcutaneous fluids and gave him oral glucose while preparing a handwarmer to heat him up. I was moving so fast I didn't have time to process what was going on. He perked up briefly after I finished the drip and I was starting to have hope that he would make it. He purred and cuddled, but quickly went limp again. In less than a half an hour he was gone. I didn't even have a stethoscope to confirm so I had to hold his little body up to my ear and pray for a heartbeat. After several minutes of watching for breaths (none came) and pinching toes and testing pupils it was clear that he was gone for good. I wrapped him up and put him in the freezer for a burial the next day. 

Then we started investigating why a kitten who had been healthy for weeks, who had received a vaccination at 7 weeks and was due for another in a few days time, who had never had any problems other than intestinal parasites had died so suddenly. There was a small amount of vomit around his mouth and in the cage. It was bile yellow. He was dehydrated and anemic. I talked with Susan on the phone (she and Selena were both gone for the weekend to their respective jobs) and we suspected toxicity. We had a new pine litter that had been donated and were worried that he had eaten some. All of the other kittens housed in the cage with him were fine so it seemed like the only reasonable explanation.

By the next morning it was clear that it wasn't toxicity. Another kitten, Camille the calico from hokenjo, was vomiting and lethargic. Eija and I immediately took her to Ami Pet Clinic all the way in Koriyama. We also brought Shane's body along in case a necropsy could be performed. Ami was at a loss as to why Camille, a healthy 4 month old kitten was doing so poorly. I consulted with Susan on the phone again and she said I had to have him check for parvo. 

 

 

Feline panleukopenia virus is a parvovirus related to canine parvovirus. FPV is a highly contagious and frequently fatal disease. It attacks the intestinal lining causing ulceration and causes a dramatic decrease in white blood cell count which compromises the immune system. The symptoms include lethargy, inappetance, vomiting, dehydration, and (usually lastly) bloody diarrhea. FPV can live in the environment for over a year and is transmitted directly between cats, through bedding, and through the clothes and shoes of people caring for sick cats. The death rate for kittens under 2 months is 95% even if they receive treatment, older kittens 60-70% with treatment and nearly 100% without treatment, adult cats have a 10-20% mortality rate with treatment and 85% without treatment (numbers from Wikipedia). Most cats die from secondary infection and dehydration associated with panleukopenia. 

I hadn't actually ever encountered FPV at the vet clinics where I had worked since everyone vaccinates their cats at clinics. I'd heard about it spoken in whispers at the two county animal controls where I had volunteered. Only once had I actually seen a panleukopenia outbreak. One day I went to take pictures of all of the cats at Wake County Animal Shelter to be posted online. The next day I went back because I'd run out of time to take pictures of all of them. I entered the cat room and virtually all of the cats were gone. They had euthanized all of them because they suspected panleukopenia. 

 

 

Camille tested positive for panleukopenia (though in Japan they just call it parvo). Ami sensei ran a CBC and her white blood cell count was almost zero. I had a bit of a breakdown. I cried, the vet techs working at the clinic cried, Camille lay on the exam table barely moving. Ami agreed to keep her and do what he could, but he wasn't hopeful. Eija and I realized that we now had 32 cats in danger of dying. They were all in one room together in cages. People had been letting the kittens out to play. We were in no way prepared to deal with an outbreak like this. 

We rushed back to Club LOHAS and discovered that the volunteers had moved the cats out onto the balcony in their cages. I was baffled and appalled realizing that now the balcony was probably covered in parvo and we wouldn't be able to walk on it without tracking the virus everywhere. It was the worst possible situation. I called Selena's uncle, a vet, and asked for his advice. He told us to sanitize and build an enclosure outside. Not knowing wat else to do...we go to it. Selena's dad and Jim put up a bunch of plywood and the rest of us bleached everything we could. It took all day.

While everyone else was cleaning cages, I was transferring cats into carriers so that their cages could be cleaned. I was down to the last cat, Edmund. I had somehow managed to get them all into carriers without scratches or bites. Edmund, however, was not ok with being stuffed into a small carrier. He bolted the second I opened the door. Remember, the cages had been moved onto the balcony. I hadn't wanted to move them inside because I felt this would just spread more virus and potentially infect more cats. Edmund leapt off of the balcony and dashed into the woods. I sprinted down the stairs and yelled for help, but none of us were fast enough to catch him. We left traps out for weeks, but to no avail. I broke down again and laid in the parking lot. It seemed so hopeless. 

The kittens we moved into Room A since we knew that they had all been exposed and it was just a matter of time before they exhibited symptoms. There were 10 kittens in total (not including Shane and Camille). Everytime I looked at them I started crying. We had been caring for these kittens for a month. Five of them had come to us close to feral and we'd rehabilitated them to like people. 

Susan came back that night and had procured Tamiflu. I'd heard very mixed things about using Tamiflu to treat parvo, but didn't see anything else that could be done. We went ahead and started dosing all of the cats with a protocol created by an American veterinarian. 

On Sunday July 3rd Eija and I went to Koriyama to see how Camille was faring and to bring her Tamiflu. Selena had to go with two volunteers to pick up the Hello Shop owner's dog, Mari. 

Camille was still lethargic and not eating or drinking, though her vomiting had subsided. It appeared to me that Ami sensei was only giving her subcutaneous fluids and I explained that we needed him to give the fluids intravenously. We left the Tamiflu for him to use on Camille and returned to Club LOHAS. 

In the meantime, Susan had been desperately searching for a clinic that could take all of our kittens (now 5 were showing symptoms) and give proper care in an ICU setting. She found a vet who would take them and so I set out with all 10 of them. We met Selena at Asaka pet clinic. While she had been in the field picking up Mari the police had stopped and asked for her help. They had found 3 kittens in a box in the woods that were starving to death. Selena knew that she couldn't bring them back to Inawashiro so she took them straight to the vet. One died on the way. The other two had maggots around their anuses, but were otherwise ok after some fluids and food. They were set up in an incubator by the time I arrived with the parvo exposed kittens. 

Asaka sensei ran CBCs on all of the kittens. Four of them had deadly low WBCs (Dylan, Henry, Willie, and Anton) and he agreed to keep them in isolation, run IV fluids, and give Tamiflu (though he'd never given it before and doubted it could help kittens with WBCs in the 400s). The rest of the kittens we took home and treated ourselves with Tamiflu and subcutaneous fluids. 

The next day we learned that Camille (at Ami) and Henry (at Asaka) had both passed.

The rest of that week is a blur to me. I remember visiting the three boy kittens and two new kittens at Asaka a couple of times, but mostly I remember mixing and administering Tamiflu hundreds of times and giving subcutaneous fluids constantly. Susan and I would stay up until 2 and 3 am treating the cats and praying that the next day would be better. But each day it seemed a new cat became ill, another kitten needed fluids. It was beyond exhausting. 

The two kittens that Selena had picked up in Namie were transferred to foster at Sylvia's the next weekend. She named them Blue and Maxie. 

Blue (orange and white tabby) and Maxie. 

 

We thought that since they had been boarded at the vet clinic and never even came near Inawashiro that they would be fine. Within a day of getting to Sylvia's they had both exhibited symptoms of parvo. I know that this was because of poor sanitizing practices at Asaka pet clinic. Later I saw him touch a parvo infected kitten with his bare hands and then immediately grab things from drawers. Yet again, another example of how difficult it is to find decent vets here. Maxie passed away because Sylvia had terrible luck with vets even in Tokyo. She was turned away from some and others refused to do IV drips and give Tamiflu. Maxie went half a day without treatment.

A week later the three kittens of Naomi's came down with parvo, as well. We took them immediately to Asaka pet clinic (this was before I noticed his terrible sanitation procedures) and the orange boy of the litter, Terrence, passed away, but Cleo, Prissy, and Naomi survived. 

Parvo survivors: Naomi, Prissy, Cleo, and Blue.

 

Ultimately we lost 5 kittens to parvo during those 2 weeks. Shane, Camille, Henry, Terrence and Maxie. However, these are truly amazing statistics. That is 5 kittens out of 35 cats and kittens. Even with treatment we probably should have lost 15-20. We can only attribute this to the Tamiflu and I know that if I ever encounter panleukopenia in the future I will use it. We found that with administration of Tamiflu within hours of a cat becoming symptomatic, we saved their lives. The only kitten that died with Tamiflu given in a timely manner was Henry. 

 

Our Protocol

For those interested, we used the Tamiflu protocol established by Dr. Jack Broadhurst. This includes starting the use of Tamiflu as soon as the first symptom presents. For us, the first symptom (but also the most commonly missed) was inappetance. This was then followed by vomiting (bile yellow), then dehydration, and the stereotypical bloody diarrhea rarely happened and when it did was only at the very end of the terminal cases. Don't rely on blood diarrhea to be the determining symptom for panleukopenia! I am now always suspicious when a cat that previously ate well turns up its nose at food. 

In addition to Tamiflu, we gave once daily injectable Baytril, once daily Cerenia injections to control vomiting, and subcutaneous fluids twice daily. We would have given fluids intravenously, but didn't have the equipment necessary to do so. Intravenously is always a better option than subcutaneously for panleukopenia cats. We also would have given intravenous glucose and vitamin injections if we had had the capacity to do so. 

We had several cases in which we would treat the cat or kitten for days. Vomiting and diarrhea would stop, but they would continue to not eat or drink. In these cases we began force feeding after 3 days. You shouldn't ever force feed a cat in the throes of panleukopenia but 3 days after becoming symptomatic is a long time to go without food. We figured that it was more important to stave off anemia and hypoglycemia than to worry about diarrhea. 

A few more notes, canine parvo tests DO work to diagnose panleukopenia. A negative can be a false negative (though we never had this happen), but a positive is never a false positive. We ended up using Virkon to disinfect as it kills FPV faster than bleach without the terrible smell.  In lab tests it was shown that cats who had had panleukopenia would shed it for up to 43 days. Thus, the standard is that a cat who has had FPL should be isolated from healthy cats for 6 weeks or else they can pass the virus to the healthy cats. FPV dose is important. Feline panleukopenia virus is all over in nature. However, cats generally only contract panleuk when they are in an area with a high concentration of the virus such as a barn or shelter. This is why it's important to isolate sick cats from the ones that aren't currently exhibiting symptoms, even if you know the "healthy" (asymptomatic) one has been exposed. The "healthy" one will likely have a worse case of panleuk if you allow it to mingle with the symptomatic one because it will be constantly stepping in the vomit, feces, etc of the sick one exposing it to vastly more amounts of the virus. 

 

The two weeks following the panleukopenia outbreak were two of the worst weeks in my life. I hope that no one I know has to experience it and that I never have to experience it again. Vaccinate your cats (and your neighbors! and the ferals in your neighborhood! and any cat you come across!)

Why are there always cats around me?

Monday June 27th saw us heading back to our new favorite veterinarian at the Amy Pet Clinic in Koriyama. We wanted to get Sir-Gimps-A-Lot's (oh, dark humor) elbow issues checked out. I figured there wasn't much that could be done by a regular veterinarian, especially in Japan, but I wanted to make sure he at least wasn't in excruciating pain.

The veterinarian immediately ordered radiographs and my suspicions were confirmed. Both elbows were dislocated and had been so for a very long time (probably since birth). He felt that there wasn't anything to be done except manage his pain when he strained himself so he sent us home with Rimadyl. It was disheartening that there wasn't anything that could immediately be done. At home in the U.S. we would send this dog to an orthopedic specialist. He could be given a wheelchair or go through physical therapy or maybe even undergo surgery to address the problem. However, here in Japan, there are very few veterinary specialists. Maybe I'll fly Kangaroo (the dog's real name from his original guardian) home with me if his guardian will surrender (unlikely).

Sir-Gimps-A-Lot (his real name is Kangaroo) just hanging out. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Hatsutani.

Kangaroo's signature move. When his front legs get tired he just sits up like a certain Australian marsupial.  So adorable. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Hatsutani.

Beyond that, Monday was just spent doing animal care.

On Tuesday June 28th we decided that scouting in Kawamata and Namie was a good idea because I was worried about the pregnant mama cat at the Hello Shop. We couldn't find her when we got there so we continued with our feeding route through Kawamata and Namie. As we drove we noticed that there was a dramatic increase in the number of cats that we were seeing. We conjuctured as to why that would be the case and I realized that the huge piles of food we had previously been seeing along the roadways dropped by other rescue groups had been absent for weeks. Worried that the cats would starve waiting along the road for food that wasn't coming, we made the decision to pick up as many as possible that day. 

As we made our way towards the chickens  we picked up an orange tabby who we named Edmund, a talkative tortoiseshell christened Kathy (for Chatty Kathy), and a skinny calico dubbed Julia. 

Julia months later at her foster home. Photo courtesy of foster mom Ayako Oscar.

We made it to the chickens and fed and watered them. Then we headed over to the house where Fran and I had picked up all of the dogs and cats the previous weekend. We immediately saw a tortoiseshell that I had left behind because she was clearly lactating but the kittens couldn't be found. Now that we had the go ahead to pick up all of the cats from their house we followed her inside and searched for the kittens. Inside of the house was even more terrible than the outside. One whole room was occupied but tons and tons of sheets and shirts and futons piled knee high. The place stunk to high heaven. We found a half eaten bag of ferret food and a cage that looked ferret-sized. Who knows what happened to the ferret...

It took quite a while, but eventually we found the kittens. They were nestled inside a drawer in one of the back rooms. Tiny at about 2 and a half weeks old they were the most adorable little poof balls. We gathered them and the mom up and carefully loaded them into the van with the 3 other cats. 

Here is the mama cat named Isis and then renamed Naomi later. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Hatsutani. 

One of Naomi's kittens, Cleo, a few weeks later at her foster home. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Hatsutani.

Prissy, one of the other kittens in Naomi's litter. I swear this is the most beautiful kitten that has ever kittened. I want to write a love song to her. However, she knows she's gorgeous and plays it up. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Hatsutani. 

 

We turned around and headed back for Inawashiro, but picked up two more cats along the way. Charlie, a grouchy female black and white cat with a Hitler 'stache, and Greta, a pregnant calico. 

Charlie a few months later in Inawashiro. Less grumpy, but still a bit of a jerk sometimes. We love her :) Photo courtesy of Susan Roberts

Greta months later in Inawashiro. Photo courtesy of Susan Roberts. 

 

After we arrived back in Inawashiro we decided that we had to go back the next day to pick up more cats. But we needed to bring more carriers....

So Wednesday June the 29th saw us back in Namie armed with greater numbers of carriers and cat traps and cat food. We were determined to pick up as many cats as we could! But we ended up only getting two. In Kawamata we caught an all white female cat whom we named Ivanna because she looks like a Russian cat model. It was as we were trying to trap the black cat who was clearly her friend that the wonderfully ineffective and annoying cops pulled up to ask what we were doing. Their brief visit was enough to scare the black cat away from the trap.

Ms. Ivanna...When we first picked her up she was sunburnt and had a terrible ear mite infestation. We cleaned her up and treated her and she is now so gorgeous and gentle. 

 

We also caught an orange and white tabby boy (who ended up being feral, it's really hard to tell when you set a trap for a starved cat if they will be friendly or not) in Namie. We named him Sid (Sid Vicious) because the day after his rescue he escaped from his cage and tore Selena and myself up as we tried to wrangle him back into it. 

Sid is the happy guy on the left! Kind of reminds me of the "Very Angry Cat" video. Photo courtesy of Susan Roberts. 

WARNING: This next bit is pretty graphic. Do not read if you are squeamish.

 

When Susan and I got back to Club LOHAS we found Selena wrestling with Taro. The previous day Selena had noticed that he was nibbling at his butt. I immeditely suspected anal gland issues because he was current on flea prevention so it probably wasn't a flea allergy response. Selena managed to hold him still long enough for me to express his glands. The gland material was chunky and pus-filled. Thinking that he just had infected anal glands (a volunteer veterinarian had just come by earlier that week and given him a quick exam and found nothing wrong) I instructed Selena to take him to Ami Pet Clinic in Koriyama while Susan and I went to pick up cats. 

By the time Selena had gotten Taro to Koriyama, chunks of his fur was falling off of his back. Ami sensei shaved a bit of his back and underneath the skin was swarming with literally hundreds of maggots. I guess Taro wasn't behaving too well at the vet because Ami sent him home with instructions for Selena to "shave his entire body and spray him with some pink liquid." Just another example of how the Japanese vets we have come across all suck at their jobs. 

So Selena was trying to shave Taro with the 3000 yen (about $35, really cheap) clippers we purchased a few weeks previous. Obviously it wasn't going well. Luckily, our fantastic volunteer, Kate (the one who actually rescued Taro from the Ofunato hokenjo), had mailed us some more legitimate clippers the previous week. I brought these out and turned them on to hear what sounded like a freight train. A screw seemed to be loose or something and the clippers made a maddening sound. Taro, rightly, freaked out. I had to have both Selena and Pauline restrain him with a muzzle so I could stuff his ears with cotton balls and get to work. 

Ultimately it took us 4 hours to shave Taro's whole body. I picked off hundreds of maggots (don't worry, I had gloves...that totally makes it better...) by hand and with tweezers and drowned them in an alcohol/pink liquid from Ami sensei bath. It was like something out of a horror movie. Every new body part shaved revealed a fresh nest of parasites. The maggots were particularly concentrated around his testicles and anus. Even after I was done shaving him I couldn't get them all out. I could see them crawling just beneath his skin. I'm lucky that I have a strong stomach, but even I was close to vomiting several times. 

Later we learned that this was not an uncommon thing to happen in Japan in the summer, especially in hokenjos (animal control facilities). The dogs sit in standing water for long periods of time and the wet skin underneath the fur becomes the perfect breeding ground for the maggots. I'd only seen maggots on necrotic tissue before so it was a whole experience for me. One I hope to never have to repeat. I can't even begin to imagine how painful it was for Taro. In the weeks after we de-bugged him he became a much sweeter dog (though still prone to the occasional random bite). 

Here is Taro a few days after his de-maggoting. It's kind of hard to tell but all of the discolored area along his back had maggots. Photo courtesy of Pauline Jennings. 

Thursday July 28th was spent trying to bleach our minds of the horror of the previous night and getting all the cats settled in. We had to rig up some jacked up cages since we had over 30 cats by this point. I'm surrounded by cats. 

Left behind in Namie

On Friday June 25th, we prepared for Susan and Selena's departure. Blane and I were to stay back and take care of the animals while they went home to their respective weekend jobs. Selena took Choco and the 3 kittens (who we named Athena, Artemis, and Orion) to the Trap/Neuter/Return clinic in Tokyo for spays and neuters.

Right before they left, however, we received information that a group was going into the 20 km exclusion zone and we may have the opportunity to go with them. So we were frantically trying to plan for this possibility while also taking care of the animals and getting ready for Susan and Selena to leave. It was quite the circus.

We managed to secure a rental van for pick up the next morning and I was to go get the van and drive to the border of the 20km zone. Everything seemed like it was falling into place, so Susan and Selena left and Blane and I got to work around Club LOHAS. While he and I were walking dogs, however, we received calls from Selena frantically trying to tell us that we had to pick up a van tonight in Koriyama because I would have to be out at the border early in the morning.

Now, at this moment, I would like to introduce the reader to the Toppo.

This is not our Toppo, but an approximation. Our Toppo looks like this Toppo if it contracted leprosy.

 

The Toppo is an ancient Mitsubishi car that had been graciously donated to JEARS by a Japanese citizen. However, getting registration for the Toppo was a hassle and for several months the Toppo had alternately functioned as a dog kennel, a chicken coop, and a large laundry basket.

The Toppo was the only vehicle available to Blane and I for going to pick up the rental van that night in the dark in the rain in Koriyama. I had previously been told that the Toppo wasn't to be driven more than 70 km/hr, so I eased onto the expressway towards Koriyama. It seemed to be driving well (except for the horrible grinding noises), but then a few kms down the expressway the windshield wipers stopped. It is rainy season in Japan right now and on that night it was absolutely pouring rain. For some reason a small patch in the windshield still allowed some visibility to I drove to Koriyama (about an hour away from Inawashiro) in the rain with Blane clearly white-knuckled beside me.

We made it alright (though a half an hour later than the rental shop closed, they were super nice and stayed open for us) and got the rental van, but ditched the Toppo at the shop (with permission). We made our way back and managed to get to Club LOHAS without any major problems (though I may have taken away a few years from Blane's life with my driving).

The next day (Saturday June 25th), I got up at 5:30 am in anticipation of going to the 20 km border only to be told that, no, I wouldn't be able to get in and they weren't bringing animals out so don't worry about it. It was very disappointing to say the least. On the plus side, Judy made it up to help out for the weekend and a new volunteer, Pauline, came in that day, as well, so Blane was able to go to the air force base to pick up supplies. Judy, Pauline, and I spent a relaxing day on animal care and eating.

In the late afternoon, another volunteer, Kate, brought by two corgies and a cat whom they had picked up from the Sendai hokenjo.

The female tri-color corgi, Pitan, is a 12 year old girl surrendered to hokenjo because her owners were displaced by the disasters and couldn't care for her. She stayed at hokenjo for two months and during that time an employee connected with her. When it was determined that she should be put down, an employee called JEARS out of desperation trying to save her life. Kate picked her up (along with the other two).  She is very sweet, but it was clear that Pitan had been very well-fed, but this overfeeding of table scraps and whatnot has come at a cost to her health. She seems to have pretty bad arthritis in both hips. She is now on a diet here at Club LOHAS.

The younger male corgi, Taro, a 7 year old, had been the pet of an older couple. They went into a hospital and were unable to care for him, so they gave him to their adult children. However, the adult children had been displaced by the earthquake and were also unable to give him proper care so they surrendered him to the hokenjo. Kate saw him at hokenjo when she went to pick up Pitan and took him, as well. Unfortunately, Taro is kind of bitey (why can't we have nice things?) so we have to be wary around him.

Taro trying to figure out if biting me is the best course of action.

Taro deciding against it and instead giving an awkward smile.

 

The cat, Setsuo, is a 1 year old male. His guardian had been living with him in temporary housing after having to evacuate. However, the neighbors on either side of the guardian told her that they were allergic to the cat and Setsuo was making them break out in hives. Personally, I've never heard of someone breaking out in hives from being in a house adjacent to a cat, much less two people, but the guardian believed them and felt she had no choice but to take Setsuo to hokenjo. Luckily, we became aware of the situation and told the guardian that we would foster Setsuo until she was in more permanent housing or in temporary housing with non-jerk neighbors.

Setsuo cursing my existence.

 

We ended the night fairly early having taken care of all of the animals.

On Sunday June 26th, I woke up early, again, in preparation for a meeting with Fran and Sega-san in Kawamata. Sega-san had been feeding a cat and was worried that it had become sick. She wanted our help diagnosing and possibly removing the cat for veterinary care. Fran came to Inawashiro and we caravanned to Hello Shop where we met up with Sega san. She took us to the house with the cat, but, unfortunately, the cat was nowhere to be seen. We dropped a lot of food and hoped for the best.

Since it was the weekend, I needed to feed the chickens and Fran came along as he hadn't seen them in quite a while. On our way there we stopped in to speak to Amano-san. She was excited to see us and informed us (via Miho translating on my Iphone) that the owner of the dogs we had found on Wednesday was willing to let us take all but one to Inawashiro! At this point it felt serendipitous that we had rented the Hi-ace. Even though we couldn't get into the 20 km zone we were still able to use it to transport a lot of animals.

Amano-san drove with us to the house and we began collecting the animals. First we picked up a super-friendly adult white male cat. He has since been named Nova (for Casanova because he is so sweet and also apparently the father of many kittens).

 

Nova wanting some affection.

"Please let me climb on your shoulder and drool in contentment!"

 

Next we saw an adult white female cat. I picked her up and noticed that she was lactating. We couldn't immediately take her, so we focused on the dogs. There were 4 dogs barking frantically at us. Amano-san pointed at the big Akita mix closest to the house as being the one we had to leave behind. Supposedly some relatives of the guardians were coming to pick him up before the end of June and he had to be at the house waiting for them. Instead we began systematically loading the other dogs.

 

The poor dog being left behind.

 

The first one loaded was a dog with obvious front leg issues. He was the only one not chained and was freely roaming the property with a bizarre limp. I suspected elbow dysplasia because both front legs were abnormally bent at the elbows in the exact same fashion so it probably wasn't from an injury. Despite this, he was very friendly and actually seemed excited to get into the crate for transport.

 

 

Until I learned his real name ("Kangaroo") a few days later, I called him Sir-Gimps-A-Lot. He didn't seem to mind as long as I gave him a belly rub.

 

Next we loaded a female and a male dog, both with shaggy reddish-brown fur and kind of skittish.

Fran with the female. Her name is Chibi and she is super sweet unless you try to do anything vaguely veterinary care with her.

The boy, Choco

Amano-san gathering the dogs.

You can see the horrible conditions in which they were being kept. Living on broken sheet metal and beside car batteries. I've purposely made a habit of not addressing the poor conditions in which many of these rural animals are kept because I don't want to be disrespectful, but this was so horrendous I can't keep quiet.

 

Lastly, we followed the white mother cat upstairs into the loft of the barn where we found two of her kittens. We searched far and wide for other kittens, but couldn't find any. We left some wet food in hopes that any left behind kittens would be old enough to eat it. We then got ready to head out.

 



A van full of animals!

 

Just as we were about to leave, Fran happened to hear something in one of the tiny chicken coops in front of the home. He checked inside and found one live chicken and a half dozen weeks-dead corpses. The chicken was so weak we grabbed her with a towel and put her in a dog cage and she could barely hold her head up. We got her some water and feed and she quickly perked up. We have no idea how she managed to survive so many weeks without food or water. The others had clearly died a long time ago. It was so sad considering the guardians had been coming back to feed the dogs and cats occasionally but just left the chickens to languish. We loaded the chicken so that she could go to Fran's home.

We made a quick stop to feed the chickens and dropped by the Hello Shop to check on the cats there. The pregnant mama was still pregnant and I tried to catch her, but to no avail. I resolved to check back soon and try to get permission from the Hello Shop owners to remove the cats because it's just not safe for kittens to be born in an evacuated area.

Back in Inawashiro, Susan and Selena had returned and we got all of the animals settled. I got back early enough that I was even able to vaccinate all of the kittens!

 

Getting stuff done at Club LOHAS

Monday June 20th was a great day with many volunteers. Selena's dad, Blane, had recently come to Japan to help out, Tamy and her mother stayed for a few days, and of course, Susan, Selena, and myself for in Inawashiro. With so many great volunteers we got a good deal of organizing done.

However, we were quite worried about one of the kittens from the litter rescued with their mother. The black and white girl (recently named Stella) was losing weight unexpectedly. We needed to go to a veterinary clinic anyway to take Koo and Lee because they both had abscesses (we discovered Lee's that morning). So we went to Koriyama City to a veterinarian recommended to us by Miwa with the Lee, Koo, Stella, and the black cat from the litter. I was a little concerned considering my previous experiences with Japanese vets.

My concerns were quickly alleviated by the animals for adoption signs in the waiting room of the Koriyama vet clinic and by the way in which the technicians handled the cats. The veterinarian examined the kittens and took a fecal sample. He diagnosed roundworms and even asked me to confirm by looking at the microscope! When we told him that the kittens were being housed with other kittens who certainly also had roundworm infections he even gave us medicine for all of them! For Koo and Lee he flushed the wounds with iodine and asked if I would do this for the next few days. It was really great to be included in the treatment plan for the cats by a Japanese vet!

We took the cats home and everyone was in the Dog Cafe at Club LOHAS. We pulled out some donated wine and made a night of it!

On Tuesday June 21st, we took care of more organizational issues. A new volunteer, Sylvia, arrived and she had some IT experience. She fixed our internet for us while Blane and Selena worked on fencing for the dogs. While everyone was busy doing that stuff, I vaccinated all of the puppies, Samu, and the kittens and dewormed everyone. A very productive day!

On Wednesday the 22nd (Chicken Wednesday!) I took Blane and Sylvia to feed the chickens. It was a fairly uneventful drive, only one cop stopping us to check IDs. We quickly took care of the chickens, but heard frantic barking in the distance. I hadn't heard barking from that direction before so we headed down there to see what was going on. We found a house with 5 dogs chained outside and 3 cats roaming. They all had food and water, but one of the cats looked really emaciated. Other animal rescue groups had posted flyers on the door of the house, but the owner had also posted a flyer telling us not to remove the animals. There wasn't really anything we could do, so we just left a flyer on which Sylvia wrote that we could help them obtain free veterinary care for the animals.

Driving out of Namie we stopped at Amano san's house to drop off the cat food  she had requested and to ask her about the house with the animals. She told us that she, too, was quite worried about the animals and had previously admonished the owner for the way in which they were being kept. She promised to speak to them again and see if the owner would release the animals to JEARS.

Also on our way out we trapped a cat! I had seen this orange tabby roaming the road in front of the Tsushima Junior High School. Someone had set up a feeding station there, but hadn't fed in a very long time. When we saw him this time, I got out of the car with a can of food and he approached me staying about 10 feet away at all times. We put down a cat trap and trapped him within 5 minutes! We've since name him Stanley! He was clearly someone's pet who probably evacuated. He's shy, but sweet.

Sorry I can't figure out why it uploaded sideways. But here is Stanley!

Thursday June 23rd was just an animal care, laundry, and Denny's day! Also, Sylvia left which made me really bummed :(

 

By myself in Inawashiro and a bittersweet reunion

On Friday June 17th, Susan and Selena left for their respective jobs taking with them 5 kittens (the orange litter from Hokenjo) and 3 adult cats. Two of the kittens were being adopted! The other 3 went to a foster home. Selena took Archie, Scarlet, Benjamin, and Petie to Tokyo to a Trap-Neuter-Return for their spays and neuters. The clinic also gave the vaccines for free when they found out what we were doing.

We had been worried that I would be all by myself with Susan and Selena gone, but Miwa showed up to Club LOHAS having taken the day off from work just to help me. I'm sure she will never read this, but I hope that she knows how incredibly grateful I am for all of the volunteering she has done with JEARS and with her own animal group in Koriyama.

So Miwa showed up and helped me to organize the donation shed. We also went shopping and bought cleaning supplies so that we could deep clean the dog houses. It ended up being a very productive day.

Miwa returned on Saturday June 18th for more animal care and organizing. That night, our Yokota base friends arrived in Inawashiro bringing more donated animal food, homemade human food (Thanks, Sandy!!), and great news of more potential foster and adoptive homes!

The next day, Sunday June 19th, we had a day packed full of pickups, drop offs, and scouting. First on the agenda was dropping off Chiro, Jr. (the male Chiro, we had mistakenly been calling him Sr. but Sr. is actually his mother even though she looks super young, hence the confusion). Chiro's original guardian, from whom we had taken him as she was evacuating Kawamata, had found a family friend willing to care for him in Fukushima City, about an hour from where she was staying. In the new foster home, she would be able to visit him more regularly.

This was sad, however, for Chiro, Jr.'s temporary foster moms, Tamy-san and her mother, who had been keeping him in Tokyo. They had already fallen in love with him in the short time and it was clear that he had formed a bond with them, as well. At one point Tamy hoisted Chiro into her arms and cuddled him and it was such a sweet moment. It was going to be a difficult departure.

So we all started caravanning to Fukushima City with Miwa and Yomiko-san leading the way, Tamy and her mother in the second car with Chiro, and Jim, Eija, and I in the big van pulling up the rear. I'm sure it was quite a scene to behold.

When we arrived at Fukushima City at the new foster's home we were told to wait a few minutes because Chiro, Jr's guardian was coming by to see him and say thank you. I was so excited to see her and to see her reunite with Chiro because I remember how distraught she was on the day that we picked him up. While we were waiting the new foster mom brought out tea and we all sat around and talked about animals (great small-talk topic among animal people!)

When Chiro's guardian arrived her face lit up to see Chiro and he ran towards her, tail wagging. It was such a beautiful moment especially when I looked around and there were 11 people in total standing in a semi-circle around this dog. It's amazing how a dog can bring so many people across so many cultures together.

The gorgeous Tamy, Chiro, and Chiro's guardian. Photo courtesy of Eija Niskanen

 

The happiest dog in Fukushima City. Photo courtesy of Eija Niskanen

Once it was clear that Chiro had properly settled into his new home, Miwa (again) led the caravan, this time to pick up some cats also in Fukushima City. This was another Sega san arranged pick-up (what can I say, the woman is a saint). The woman from whom we were picking up cats had begun having anxiety issues after the 3/11 earthquake. This made her less able to take care of her cats. Her inability to properly care for her cats was compounding her anxiety issues. It was clearly a terrible situation for all involved. So Sega-san arranged for us to take the cats and temporarily house them until the woman felt capable of guardianship again.

When we got to the house the woman immediately started crying. I just wanted to give her a huge hug, but that would have been culturally insensitive (how DO you comfort a sad Japanese person?). She led us to a guest house where the cats were living. They had a nice big cage in the center for climbing and sleeping in, but the room smelled of ammonia and was quite cluttered. The woman began explaining to me that one of the cats had developed a tumor and she was very worried about it. I picked up that cat first, a small tortoiseshell/tabby named Koo. The woman pointed to the "tumor" and I immediately recognized it as a bite wound abscess. I told her (through Miwa) that it wasn't actually a tumor but an infection and the woman was visibly happier as she smiled through her tears.

Koo-chan in her basket. She's kind of shy, but does love ear rubs.

 

The next cat to be picked up was a big orange tabby boy named Lee. When we picked him up to put him into a carrier her immediately started purring.

Lee begging for a head rub

 

Lee begging to be let out so that he can climb into my lap. He's the cuddliest Casanova cat.

 

Then, we picked up the last adult cat, Choco, a gorgeous silver tabby boy. He's also quite the lover.

Choco looking stoic as I pet him.

 

Lastly, we picked up a litter of 3 kittens, two brown tabbies (females) and an orange tabby (male). They are about 3-4 months old and the offspring of Koo and Lee. Don't worry, they've already been spayed and neutered since they've been with us!

Adorable unnamed kittens! Feel free to give names in the comments section.

 

After loading up all of the cats into Miwa's car, the guardian woman said tearful goodbyes and gave us coffee. Miwa's car and Tamy's car then departed back for Inawashiro to set up the new cats in houses and Jim, Eija, and I drove to Namie to feed the big chicken coop.

At the chicken coop we had a photoshoot!

Eija and chicken! Photo courtesy of Eija Niskanen.

 

Jim and myself. Photo courtesy of Eija Niskanen

 

Other than the chickens we drove around and scouted for animals, seeing several cats, but unable to catch any. We returned to Inawashiro to help with the animals and the Yokota base friends left to return again in two weeks!

 

Getting close to the 20km and karaoke

On Wednesday June 15th, a transport had been arranged by a German man named Axel with whom I'm apparently confused on the JEARS facebook page because Alex and Axel are acronyms (and the Japanese are as bad with western names as I am with eastern ones). So we got up at 7:30 to get dogs and cats ready to go to Shiiga and Heart Tokushima. By the time Axel and his friend arrived, Bill, Mickey, Lucky, Ryu, Mimii and her puppies, the grey litter of kittens from hokenjo, Burrito, and the meowy female calico were almost ready to go.

I have to say I had the hardest time saying goodbye to Bill, Mickey, and Lucky. Those three have hands down been the best dogs we've cared for in Inawashiro. They loved each other, people, treats, walks, everything. I hope that I get to see them again soon. Of course, it was also hard to part with (my) puppies because we've been watched them grow from little newborn lumps of fur to almost normal looking puppies. Before they left, though, we got some pictures!

Mimii and pups looking hipster. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie

Magellan my BFF. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie.

Me looking/being fat with dogs for transport. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie

 

After the transport left we had only 3 dogs and 15 cats/kittens left. It was such a huge relief! Since there were few(er) animals left, Susan said that it was alright for myself, Sister Michael Marie, and Selena to all go together to Namie to take care of the chickens at the big coop and to scout for animals.

We stopped first in Yamakiya Kawamata at the Hello Shop to check on the cats that we have seen there. There were two dogs chained to the side of the house with no food, but a little bit of water. We fed them treats and saw that some men were at a nearby car repair place. We asked and they said that people were coming by everyday to walk and feed them. So the dogs were ok. However, the cats didn't have any food in their half a dozen bowls and the water was filled with algae. Otherwise, they looked good (though one was severely pregnant and wouldn't let us near her), so we laid down food and cleaned out the water bowl, replacing the water with bottled when we realized that the outside taps had been shut off. We will continue to look in on these cats to ensure they are still being cared for.

Next, we went to check on the house with 7 cats that I'd seen a week and a half before with Erica and Eija and from which Sister and I had taken the two sick kittens. We saw no evidence that anyone was feeding the cats and they were very hungry so we laid down food.

Hungry cats eating. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie.

Shortly afterwards, the owner came out and (kindly) berated us for feeding his cats saying that they had been fed earlier in the day. I can understand him being upset because if someone came along and fed my cats (granted, I wouldn't have outdoor cats) because they thought they looked improperly cared for I would be offended, too. However, it just seemed kind of suspicious that the cats didn't have any bowls around and were so hungry and he wouldn't accept any food donations. Maybe he tries to keep them hungry so they will kill the mice in his barn?

Finally, before heading into Namie, we stopped at a shop where Sister Michael had previously (in April) caught an orange tabby that had subsequently gotten loose from a faulty carrier. He was still there, but now very wary of people. However, we also found a very pregnant female cat. I brought out some stinky wet food and she cautiously came up to it to eat. I petted her and she accepted it so then I scruffed her and stuffed her into a carrier. I really know how to make animal friends!

On the way into Namie to feed the chickens we passed by the woman whom we'd met taking care of the wild boars. We met her this time when we were stopping to try to catch an older kitten (ultimately uncatchable). She came out to tell us that she had been feeding strays in the area. We asked if she needed help and she said "yes" so we gave her a couple of bags of pet food and told her we would try to catch any of the strays that we came across. She was very nice and we learned her name is Amano san. She also told us that she was worried about some chickens that she had recently found. We confirmed that they were the same chickens we were going to feed and she was glad to hear that they were being cared for. She followed us to the chicken coop to watch us feed. While we were working she called some of her neighbors and found out the name of the owner of the chickens and where he had evacuated to! She is hoping to figure out his number soon so that we can see about transporting the chickens out.

We had to put on our Tyvek gear before getting out of the car because the radiation was particuarly high that day. However, taking care of the chickens with three people was a breeze and we quickly finished, snapping a few pictures before we left.

Selena and chicken. Photo courtesy of Selena Hoy

 

Chicken and I. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie

Sister Michael Marie and chicken. Photo courtesy of Selena Hoy.

We are excited to report that the chickens are healthy enough that they've resumed laying eggs! Here a hen nests on some eggs. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie

 

After we were done with the chickens we decided that we wanted to see what the border of the 20 km exclusion zone looked like: did it have police guarding it or was it just a road block? Since Sister Michael was with us, now seemed like the perfect time to see how far we could get because, really, who is going to arrest a nun and her friends?

At first we went the wrong way. It initially looked like the right way, but the road ended up going up and around the 20km zone. Also, this highway became a dirt road. Scary. So we backtracked and as we were driving back we were stopped by not one but two police cars! They asked us what we were doing, but were satisfied to hear that we were doing animal rescue work. One of the sets of cops even told us to look out for goats. He had seen two goats roaming with collars on that someone had apparently set free and he was worried for them. We also saw a dog on the road right as we were being pulled over but couldn't get near it. It had a collar on and looked well-fed so it may have just been the dog of someone who hadn't evacuated yet.

We turned around and went back to the road with the wild boars on it. Here we went past a roadblock that said something to the tune of "It is best if you do not enter here." Someone had scrawled 5 km on the top of the sign. This was the entrance to the 25 km zone.

Inside this area we immediately began seeing cats. They were hanging around outside of houses. We saw 3 cats at one house who wouldn't let us near the so we laid down food. Then, at another house, we spotted an orange tabby sitting prettily beside a house. Selena went up to see him and he eagerly came for food. Sister Michael got out of the car and grabbed him and put him into a carrier. Under normal circumstances we wouldn't have taken a healthy looking cat sitting at a house, but this was so close to the 20 km border and it was clear that no one was coming around except animal groups to feed him because a water and light bleached flyer from another group hang out of the mailbox. We left a note on a JEARS flyer for the homeowners that we had taken an orange cat from their property and would keep him until his guardians were found.

We have since named him Benji. He is neutered so he clearly belongs to someone. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie

 

We also saw stray cats along the road who wouldn't let us near them. We turned around when we came to a point where a sign said in Japanese that it was forbidden. It was just a roadblock, but the sign was kind of intimidating. I put a pin down on my iphone google map and we later looked up the location to see if it was the 20km border. According to the Japan Crisis google map we were only about a kilometer away from the 20 km border.

Returning through Namie we stopped to try to catch a cat near the wild boars.

She is also pregnant and has been named Petie. Photo courtesy of Sister Michael Marie

 

After several minutes of handfeeding it, Sister Michael managed to scruff it in a spectacular feat of cat wrangling. The cat was unceremoniously stuffed into a carrier and while we were in the car after the catch we were stopped by yet another police car with police who took our information and told us to be careful. The cop stops get so tiring especially when you know that they are just going to ask for your information for the thousandth time and tell you to go.

So we headed back to Inawashiro and took care of all of the animals, setting up cages for the new ones and thus ended a successful day in Namie.

On Thursday June 16th, Sister Michael Marie left early to get back to Tokyo for her flight out after helping with morning animal care. When Susan and Selena returned from the train station where they had dropped her off, we all went to a bakery across the street from Club LOHAS which Selena had been frequenting. This was a Japanese French bakery and it is absolutely glorious!!! I went a little picture happy so apologies for the excessive images.

Comaya French Bakery!

Our spectacular server/baker!

The seating areas inside the bakery. They played Norah Jones and some French pop while we were there. So much awesome.

The view from our seat on some vintage couches.

Local tofu with salad and English Muffins. So delicious I could eat it everyday.

My soy milk cappuchino. Susan had one as well and hers had a smiley face.

Delectable chocolate croissant. #thisiswhyyou'refat

Handmade jewelry, bags, and other items crafted by a woman in Aizu sold cheaply.

The handmade dog mug that Susan bought me. I adore it!

 

The rest of the day was similarly peaceful with easy animal care, eating at Club LOHAS and drinking wine with Yoshikawa san, and most importantly, we ended the night with Karaoke!

This was my first experience with Japanese-style karaoke where everyone goes into a small room and you sing together instead of in front of a drunken crowd. There was a t.v. that displayed the lyrics and random videos behind the lyrics. It was quite clear that for the English songs the Japanese karaoke maker didn't know what was an appropriate video to match the lyrics so some of the videos were absolutely ridiculous. For example, a super white couple having a picnic and then watching a cow ford a river, a black man repeatedly walking in front of a creepy clown mural, and a sleazy Japanese guy acting like a pimp. Watching the videos made for much hilarity.

And just so those of you who have sung karaoke with me at home know, we started the night with my favorite Cee Lo Green song and whiskey on the rocks (they don't do tequila here). It was epic.

 

thursday 16- food and karaoke

More volunteer amazingness, kittens, and Kawamata

On Sunday June 12th the Watas decided to stay a half a day longer than they'd anticipated. They were concerned that with just Sister Michael and I at Inawashiro we would have a hard time managing all of the animals before Selena got back. So, again, they did most of the animal care that day. It was such a chill day that I decided to do a puppy photo shoot. Here are Mimii's puppies at 2.5 weeks. 

White boy is Polar Bear, boy at top left is Tomtom, brown boy is Magellan, and the beige and white girl is Genevieve.

Polar Bear. No one can tell me he doesn't look like a polar bear cub.

Polar Bear with his bear face and sassy arm.

Polar Bear waving. 

 

The Watas graciously stayed until the early morning of Monday June 13th when they left to return to Tokyo.

Monday morning, Selena, Sister Michael, and I did animal care. It's so much easier without the neonates and with only one aggressive dog (Muku)!!! Then around noon Sister Michael Marie and I went to Kawamata so that I could show her around and also to check on some of the animals I had seen before. 

We first stopped at the Hello Shop to check on the cats there. They were still sleeping outside and were well-cared for. We then went to Yukimama's house to look for any cats, but saw none. The next stop was the Shiba house where the owners had requested that we pick up a stray dog that was bothering their dogs and eating all of the food laid down. When we got there an older woman was in the house watching us go towards the dogs. She came outside to inquire as to what we were doing so I called Miho so that she could explain. The older woman told us that they hadn't seen the dog in about 6 days so it sees like it's gone permanently, maybe picked up by another animal rescue group.

Our final stop was at the house with the 7 cats that Erica, Eija, and I had been to on Sunday the 5th. When we got there all of the cats were still around, but there was no food to be seen. We laid down some food and as we did we saw a tiny kitten dart behind a pile of junk. He looked like he had a severe upper respiratory infection so we decided that it was appropriate to take him. We used stinky wet food to coax him out and Sister Michael grabbed him. We put him into a carrier and turned around to see another kitten darting behind a different pile of junk. We cornered her and I grabbed her, also putting her into the carrier. Both of the kittens were very underweight. At about 6 weeks old they had all of their teeth and their eyes had changed color, but their bodies were the size of 4 week old kittens.

White kitten amidst the junk.

So we brought them back and set them up in a room separate from the other kittens. I did some sketchy veterinary medicine trying to get an appropriate dose for a tiny kitten from a 125 mg Clavamox (much too large). I think it worked out, though, because I treated them for 5 days and the URI symptoms went away. I also fed the some high calorie NutriCal type stuff and they are now very fat and healthy.

Here is the little boy cat, the first one picked up, on the first night. He still looks gunky-eyed in this picture taken even after I had cleaned him up a bit.

Here's the little girl looking genki (a close Japanese approximation for "healthy") after 3 days of antibiotics.

 

On Tuesday June 14th, Sister Michael and I drove to Sendai to pick up stuff left at the Sendai house by Kinship Circle volunteers. It was uneventful except that I realized as we were driving back to Inawashiro that I didn't have enough money to pay for much-needed gas and tolls. We had an adventure stopping at a couple of rest stops and asking for ATMs. At the first one, an incredibly helpful cashier gave us a map and pointed to the area where a rest stop was along the expressway. I' sure this would have indicated to us exactly where an ATM was if we had spoken Japanese, but we don't. So we had to stop again and ask for one and luckily found it!

Susan returned on Tuesday after spending several days trying to sort out renewing her visa. I think she also got some good rest from rescue work. Things were looking up in Inawashiro!