Cat for Adoption in Okinawa

From Terry:

My wife and I were walking the dogs in a local riverside park where there are a lot of stray cats. Some kindly person feeds them, so most look in pretty good shape. There was one good-looking unusually coloured tabby I’d seen before that I pointed out to my wife, then she noticed that it had a badly injured tail — something that I didn’t see before. Being the mugs we are, we decided we’d finish walking the dogs, then bring the kit we needed to catch the cat and take her for repairs. She had the tail snipped and stitched and she is staying with us until the stitches can come out. We’ve dewormed and debugged her, as well as getting her checked for FIV and leukaemia. She’s negative.

She’s about four years old, the vet here said. She is good with people, and would make a lovely house cat. Uses a litter tray just fine. A bit wary of dogs but getting better with ours around her. She’s become more vocal now that she’s feeling comfortable in her surroundings.

Apart from her beautiful looks and big beautiful eyes, this little lady’s selling points are that we’ll pay all the expenses for her vaccinations, sterilisation and transportation.

Interested in Adopting This Cat?

Please email ARK at tokyoark[at]arkbark.net or call 080-6146-3889 (English) or 080-6517-8913 (Japanese). Tokyo ARK is a nonprofit organization founded by Brit Elizabeth Oliver. It is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming abandoned animals.

See also: Other potential pets who have been featured on the Angels with Fur site

Cat for Adoption: Ame

The now 6-month-old Ame arrived at the ARK shelter in the pouring rain when she was just 1 month old. She suffered from a near-fatal cold and underwent three operations on her eye, which had been affected by her illness. She was taken home every night by a foster parent in order to help care for her eye and now is well but has only partial sight in her left eye. No doubt due to all the handling and care she received as a kitten, she is perhaps the most laid-back, people-friendly kitten at the shelter. Her eye has not hampered her in the least. Ame loves to play with intensity and focus, then flop down and fall into a deep slumber. Ah, such is the life. Ame allows no rain on her parade. She takes on life with joie de vivre, a wink and, most assuredly, a smile.

Originally published in the Japan Times on Saturday, August 22, 2009. Photo by Kaori Kayano.

Interested in Adopting Ame?

Please email ARK at tokyoark[at]arkbark.net or call 080-6146-3889 (English) or 080-6517-8913 (Japanese). Tokyo ARK is a nonprofit organization founded by Brit Elizabeth Oliver. It is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming abandoned animals. All animals are vaccinated, neutered, and microchipped. Prospective new owners undergo a screening process.

The Japan Times supports stray and abandoned animals by publishing this photo box every Saturday in the Weekend/People section of the paper. The information is then archived here on the Angels with Fur site one week later, on the following Saturday.

See also: Other potential pets who have been featured on the Angels with Fur site

Dog for Adoption: Yu

What she lacks in size, Yu makes up for in heart. She has a huge one. This little tan dachshund is half the size of a big cat and certainly smaller than your average one. Indeed, there’s nothing average about Yu. Nine years old, she is a friend to all — dogs, cats, children, men and women. She’s a dog with class. No crazy kid stuff here. She’s quiet and social and loves to sit in laps. Yu would fit into any family, one with children, one without. She’d suit single people and senior citizens as well, or even make a great dog for a busy shop. You name it, Yu can handle it, because, like they say, size… just doesn’t matter.

Originally published in the Japan Times on Saturday, August 15, 2009. Photo by Kaori Kayano.

Interested in Adopting Yu?

Please email ARK at tokyoark[at]arkbark.net or call 080-6146-3889 (English) or 080-6517-8913 (Japanese). Tokyo ARK is a nonprofit organization founded by Brit Elizabeth Oliver. It is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming abandoned animals. All animals are vaccinated, neutered, and microchipped. Prospective new owners undergo a screening process.

The Japan Times supports stray and abandoned animals by publishing this photo box every Saturday in the Weekend/People section of the paper. The information is then archived here on the Angels with Fur site one week later, on the following Saturday.

See also: Other potential pets who have been featured on the Angels with Fur site

Dog Found: Corgi

The dog in the following pictures was found in Tsukuba, Ibaraki on August 6, 2009 at 10:30pm. Please contact Angels with Fur Japan if you know who the owner is.

Update: “Minto” found her owners! Apparently she escaped after being chased by a large dog. Her owners were out looking for her and happened to check at the local convenience store right when the person who had taken Minto in was trying to print out “Dog Found” posters at the copy machine!

Nutro Cat Food Recall

If you feed your cat food from Nutro, please have a look at their website for information about a recall. Japan is listed as one of the affected countries.

Petsitting Connection Japan

When Lene Borup Kimura came to Japan, she noticed that there were no good options for people who wanted their pets to be comfortable while their owners went on vacation. To try to ameliorate this situation, at least in her local area (Yokohama and Tokyo), she started a petsitting service at her house. When Lene’s daughter came into the picture, she had to cut back on the petsitting, but she still felt the need to help the pet-loving community, so she started The Petsitting Connection Service Japan. The PetConnect, as she calls it, pairs pet owners with pet sitters. Most of her connections are made within the greater Tokyo area, but she always welcomes people from outside the capital region. (Perhaps Angels with Fur Japan can pair up with Pet Connection Japan and help Lene start to widen her network! She already has requests for petsitters in Osaka, Nagoya, and Tsukuba. Can you help?)

If you want to offer your services as a petsitter, get in touch with Lene through her website and she will send you an introductory letter explaining the rules of the system. Once you have been accepted as a member, you will start to receive emails from her about owners who are looking for petsitting services. If you are interested in helping the owner, get in touch with Lene. If not, just ignore the email.

If you are looking for a petsitter, please fill out the form on Lene’s website with as much detail as possible about your pet so that Lene can find a good match for your pet’s temperament and needs. Lene will get in touch with you to discuss the details.

Here is an article in Metropolis magazine about Lene and Petsitting Connection Japan.

Animal Garden Niigata

Isabella Gallaon-Aoki runs Animal Garden Niigata, a boarding facility and shelter in Niigata. I asked her to write up some information in English to introduce her organization.

Animal Garden Niigata is a western-style boarding facility at the foot of Mt. Kakuda, a 45 minute drive away from the centre of Niigata City. We offer spacious accomodation. Animals are housed in rooms that are 3 to 4 tatami-size for cats and 5+ tatami-size for dogs. We also try and ensure that the environment for the animals is as stress-free as possible.

We offer both long-term and short-term boarding and can arrange pick-ups at reasonable rates from other parts of Japan. Boarding fees are 3,500 yen per night for dogs, and 2,500 yen for cats. We have monthly fees for long-term residents and give discounts for multiple pets. Our web site is currently only in Japanese, but we hope to have the English up soon. Also the fees table on the web is not current so please contact us directly for current fees.

We can also take dogs and cats that people have rescued but can’t keep themselves for reasonable rates, while people are trying to find new homes for them. Again please get in touch for details.

I personally run a small group doing animal rescue work called Animal Friends Niigata and have some rescued animals waiting for new homes in Animal Garden.

Dog for Adoption: Daisy

Daisy is desperately in need of a loving family — and quick!

Here is a message from her current owner:

I am hoping you can help me find a good home for my wonderful dog. We (my two sons and I) have a beautiful Shiba mix named Daisy. She’s seven years old. We got her as a pup from a rescue in Yokohama and she has been with us ever since. We have to go back to America suddenly (next week) and there is no way we can take Daisy with us. My mother is old and has emphysema and a severe allergy to dog hair, and I’m basically going home (for the next one to three years) to nurse her. We are trying desperately to find a home for Daisy among our friends but her age and her size – she’s slightly bigger than a pure-bred Shiba – are working against us. She’s a great dog; she loves kids, is trained to relieve herself on a sheet as we have no yard, has a slight problem with jumping for excitement in initial greetings but is otherwise very well-behaved. She sleeps on my son’s futon until I come up for bed and then on mine until she does her guard rounds. She is alert to strangers outside, but welcoming to all guests in our home. She is used to being on her own during the day as I work full time, but is a great companion for the boys when they come home from school. We love Daisy so much, and it is tearing us up that we can’t bring her with us. I promised my boys that I would find a good home for her where she’ll be happy. Can you help us at all?

If you are able to give Daisy a new, loving home, please contact Angels with Fur Japan.

Ed’s Note: The email address that we have for Daisy’s owners no longer works, so we cannot contact them. We sure hope Daisy found a new home before they left!

Cats for Adoption: Risha, Sundance, Dillon

Sadia has been fostering these three kittens who are now ready for a new home.

Risha
A black female about 5 months old. Sister of Sundance and Dillon. She is the smallest of the litter, but the most intelligent, inquisitive, and playful. She loves to play with long fuzzy ribbons and feathered toys, but give her anything and she will make up a game. She will let me hold her or pet her when it suits her mood. If not, she scampers away.

Sundance
All orange male about 5 months old. Brother of Risha and Dillon. Sudance is always the sidekick. He loves to hang out with my 2 year old tabby, Aziz. Aziz is like his big brother or favorite uncle. Sundance will let me pet him just a little when he is eating or if he is sleepy. We are making progress, but he is not yet tame enough to hold. He loves chasing and playing with toy mice and also long ribbons or feathers.

Dillon
Orange and white male, about 5 months old. Dillon is the “too cool for school boy”. He prefers to hang out by himself and watch what is going on. He still hisses at me occasionally, but it is just out of habit now. He doesn’t mean it at all. He eats out of my hand and he will let me pet him while he is eating. He plays with me and will come to sit near me, but just out of arm’s reach. He nibbles my toes or fingers when I am sleeping or sitting very quietly. Like his brother Sundance, Dillon does not want to be held at all — at least not yet. His favorite toys are mice and soft fuzzy balls.

The mother of these kittens is a dark Calico — mostly brownish black and orange. The father is white with gray spots and clear green eyes. Dillion looks a lot like him. Dillon will be a big cat like his father. Risha will probably always be small, like her mother. Both the mother and the father are neighborhood cats who live outside my apartment somewhere.

I caught the kittens when they were about 3 months old. They were very wild at first, but they have come a long way and now I think they need to go to a loving home before they become too attached to me and me to them.

With patience, love, and lots of attention, they will become more and more domesticated. They may never be lap cats. They may never let you hold them in your arms like a baby, but they are all beautiful in their own way and they will give you a lot of joy.

It would be great if Risha and Sundance could be adopted together. They love each other so much. Dillon is self-sufficient, but he also likes playing with my other cat Aziz, so I think he would be fine with other cats as well.

Please contact Angels with Fur Japan if you are interested in adopting any (or ALL!) of these kittens.

Pet Sitters in Japan

From the Angels with Fur Japan mailing list:

Question

Can anyone please tell me if there are pet-sitting businesses in Japan? If so, do you know how much they would cost?

We have PetSmart over here in the US that has daycare services for pets and a pet hotel for them when you need to go out of town — they feed/water them, clean their kitty condos and play with them daily. Are there any services like that in Japan?

Answer 1

The Angels with Fur Japan mailing list has a pet-sitters/dog walkers database you can look at. (You must be a member of the list to view the database.)

Answer 2

We found our cat-sitter through the Japan Pet Sitter Service website.

It’s all in Japanese, so it depends on your fluency. We were able
to do a search on the website and find a pet sitter locally. Then we called her and set up an appointment to meet with her and introduce our “kids”.

I don’t know if they have a set pricing system or if it varies, but we paid 3780 yen for one day – for 3 cats (feeding, cleaning up, playing, etc.), plus the transportation fee and a small extra percentage for being during a busy holiday time. She writes reports for each day she comes over, so we know if one of the “kids” didn’t eat so much or threw up or whatnot.

Answer 3

I use Kitty Smile for our cats. She comes in to feed, play and clean up, including daily kitty report/pix via email. I’ve been using her services for 3 years now and very happy with her. She charges about 2,500 per day/one visit. She provides discounts for multiple cats and multiple days. We have 4 cats and normally pay about 3,000 yen per day.