Category Archive

There is a new movie out in Japan called 「犬と私の１０の約束」 (roughly translated as Ten Promises Between Me and My Dog). The movie is based on the Ten Commandments of Dog Ownership, which are as follows.

1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Regular separation from you will be painful and can even cause depression. Think before you buy me.

2. Give me time to understand what you want from me don’t be impatient, short-tempered or irritable.

3. Place your trust in me and I will always trust you back, respect is earned not given as some sort of inalienable right.

4. Don’t be angry with me for long, and don’t lock me up as punishment. I am not capable of understanding why I am being locked up. I only know I have been rejected. You have your work, entertainment and friends. I only have you.

5. Talk to me sometimes. Even if I don’t understand your words, I do understand your tone. “You only have to look at my tail” to know that.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget, if that treatment is unjust or bad, it may spoil the special bond between us.

7. Please do not hit me. I cannot hit back, but I can bite and scratch and I don’t ever want to feel the need to do that.

8. Before you tell me off me for being uncooperative, obstinate, or lazy, ask yourself if something might be wrong with me. Perhaps I’m not getting the right food or I’ve been out in the sun too long, maybe my heart is getting old and weak, or maybe I’m just dog-tired.

9. Take care of me when I get old. You too will grow old and will also want care, love, and affection.

10. Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say, “I can’t bear to watch” or “Let it happen in my absence”. Everything is easier for me if you are there. Remember, Irrespective of what you do I will always love you.

The movie, in 40 words or less: Fourteen-year-old Akari, who lives in Hokkaido, gets a dog and names him Socks. Akari’s mother tells her about the ten commandments of owning a dog. Akari and Socks grow up together.

Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America is the last book in a long, long time that I couldn’t put down. It starts with a short history of the movement in the US to stop animal abuse in the mid 1800’s. Then it moves through how the organizations which we entrust with animal welfare have come to a conclusion. The conclusion is that there are too many cats and dogs, far more than people could ever want as pets and so most of them must be killed. According to the author the number of cats and dogs killed annually by animal shelters in the US has reached 5 million.

Nathan J. Winograd, a lawyer, and animal shelter director in US, challenges many of the assumptions held by shelter directors and staff in the United States. He built on the achievements of others to develop
a way of sheltering that says healthy cats and dogs do not have to be killed for lack of space. In short, he does it by first unplugging from the cushy million dollar contracts to kill animals on behalf of the city and country. Then to develop high volume/low cost and free spay neuter programs, stop euthanizing feral cats, start TNR programs, expand adoption and fostering programs, capitalize on volunteers, and build a staff that believes the public are an asset not a liability.

Winograd has many critics and detractors. If you believe him, the major organizations have used propaganda to undermine his credibility and distort his results. I had many questions as I read through this. Still I found it challenging and inspiring. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in any way with animal welfare.

The above is a new book to be published in March 2008. Written by Martha Sherrill, it tells the story of Morie Sawataishi and his life long devotion to saving the Akita dog. By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, there were only 16 Akitas left in the country. They were used by the military as either food or fur to line the vests of military jackets. It became Morie’s passion to save these dogs from an almost certain extinction. Today, Morie is 94 years old an still lives with his Akitas. According to the review in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of The Bark,

“In the old days of Japan, honoring the specific look or ‘breed’ was never part of the dog tradition. Spirit was the thing one hoped to keep alive.” Dog Man is a celebration of a man with spirit to spare, and of the dogs who marked and enriched his life.

Barnes and Noble offers a more in depth review here.

The book is available for preorders from Amazon Japan.

Hi, all. I’ve just noticed this listing in today’s TV log. Sorry this is such short notice, but maybe some of you will be able to see or tape this terrific BBC animal program at noon today on the Animal Planet channel. (It has also popped up on other channels.)

“Animal Games” is a (simulated) Olympic Games for the animal kingdom. They have animals from five different groups — the Mammals, the “Herpetiles”, the Birds, the Fish, the Insects) competing in five or six different events (long jump, high jump, weight-lifting, etc.) on an even basis.

The “even basis” is arrived at by using a fixed measure for human height and the highest level (for example, 10 meters) ever attained by a human in that event. Then they scale up or scale down the challenge to the individual animal. For example, a human’s greatest weight-lift achievement was something like 544 lbs, so the challenger for the stag beetle was 544,000 lbs!

The graphics are outstanding; everything looks so real! And the sports results — reported by two excited announcers in typical sports style, with background info as well — are really astounding.

By all means, try to catch and/or tape this show! It’s really sensational!

(If you miss the show, you might be able to order it from the BBC website, but I am not sure about whether they will ship to Japan, or whether you would be able to watch it on your Japanese DVD.)

Original

Translation

A 13-day old hamster named Mocha meets broccoli for the first time. Be sure to watch his feet.

More videos from the same hamster owner available here.

We don’t really have a category for otters on this site, but we try not to exclude animals of any persuasion. This video is just really heartwarming, so I thought I would share it with you on a lazy Saturday morning. (Not much happens, so don’t expect car chases or even scene changes.)

One of our members recommends the book The Cat Who Covered The World: The Adventures Of Henrietta And Her Foreign Correspondent. (Also available through Amazon.co.jp)

From the Amazon review:

Christopher Wren belonged to Henrietta the cat, and Christopher Wren travels far and wide in his work as a foreign news correspondent. Of course Henrietta insisted on being brought along to Moscow, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, and all the other cities the Wrens visited. And of course Henrietta got into all sorts of scrapes — cats can cause enough trouble right in their own living rooms! The Cat Who Covered the World is a tremendously entertaining memoir and travelogue, covering 17 years in the life of a busy cat and her accommodating family.

Here is an excellent video (set to The Cure’s “Love Cats”, which if you squint your ears sounds just like “lolcats”) that will give you a sense of the lolcats phenomenon.

Facebook is a social networking site where you can get in touch (and stay in touch — this being the key) with your friends. I have been amazed at how many long-lost friends I have found through Facebook. People from my elementary school whom I haven’t thought of in over 20 years — but remember fondly nonetheless — are getting in touch with me and letting me know how they turned out. It’s really fun.

Catbook is a Facebook application that lets you enter a profile for your pet and then let him or her make friends with other pets and humans. (Yes, there is also a Dogbook.)

This article explains the application and its history: Facebook with Whiskers

I showed Catbook to my own little feline friend but I confess that she has not shown any interest in the application just yet. Perhaps my explanation was somehow deficient.

I found this video about the funniest Japanese pets of 2004 when I was searching for something else. Japanese TV has all sorts of ranking shows, so I might be able to find other examples of this kind of thing if I dig around some more. It seems like this segment might be from a New Year’s special or something. (I tried to embed the video in this post, but it didn’t work, so please click on the above link to watch it.)

Here are the winners.

5. Tape Dog
4. Big Stick Dog
3. Sit-up Walrus
2. Dancing Cat
1. Floating Dog

In addition to its daily segment about dogs, Fuji TV runs a short segment about cats on Saturdays around 8:20am. The segment is called “doyoubi no nyanko”, or “Saturday’s Kitty”.

They also made a movie called “nyanko the movie” which was based on some of the cats that were featured in these segments. I would like to watch the movie, but I remember seeing a preview and thinking that I probably couldn’t make it through the sad parts (and since it is a movie about pets, I’m sure there are sad parts). If anyone has seen it, please tell us whether we should watch it!

Apparently neko nabes are quite popular in Japan these days.

Makes me want to go and buy a full-sized nabe for my little furball. (I’m sure she would probably prefer the small one even though there is no chance that she would fit. Ever notice how cats have difficulty admitting to their size?)

Fuji TV (known in Japanese as “Fuji Terebi”) has a short segment every morning introducing “Today’s Doggie” (kyou no wanko). The segment starts at 7:54am on weekdays and only lasts about one minute. They usually show the dog at home with its owners and tell you something special about the pet. Sometimes the stories are so touching they bring tears to your eyes, while others are quite funny.

On the website for the show, you can see today’s doggie and go back to see pictures and an introduction of doggies from past months.

Have you heard about lolcats and the i can has cheezburger website? If you are looking for a way to waste a few minutes (or hours if you find that you like this kind of humour), hop on over to the site and browse a few days’ worth of pictures.

A “lolcat” is a picture of a cat with a caption on it saying what the cat is thinking or describing what is happening in the picture. (”LOL” is internet slang for “laughing out loud”.) The icanhascheezburger website is a place where you can share such pictures. You can read more about the genesis of this idea on their about page.

The cats use a special language in the pictures that has its own syntax. It might take a while for you to follow what is being said and find common patterns (e.g. ur = your, incorrect conjugation of verbs, etc.). If you like computer programming, you might find lolcode funny too.

(And if you like lolcats, you might want to try dogslol too!)