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.
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.
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!
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