I Rescued a Human Today (by Janine Allen)

I RESCUED A HUMAN TODAY
Janine Allen

I rescued a human today.
Her eyes met mine as she walked down the corridor peering
apprehensively into the kennels.
I felt her need instantly and knew I had to help her. I wagged my tail, not too exuberantly, so she wouldn’t be afraid.
As she stopped at my kennel I blocked her view from a little accident
I had in the back of my cage.
I didn’t want her to know that I hadn’t
been walked today. Sometimes the shelter keepers get too busy
and I didn’t want her to think poorly of them.
As she read my kennel card I hoped that she wouldn’t feel sad about
my past. I only have the future to look forward to and want to make
a difference in someone’s life.
She got down on her knees and made little kissy sounds at me.
I shoved my shoulder and side of my head up against the bars to comfort her.
Gentle fingertips caressed my neck; she was desperate for companionship.
A tear fell down her cheek and I raised my paw to assure her that all would be well.
Soon my kennel door opened and her smile was so bright that I instantly jumped into her arms. I would promise to keep her safe. I would promise to always be by her side.
I would promise to do everything I could to see that radiant smile and sparkle in her eyes.
I was so fortunate that she came down my corridor. So many more are out there who haven’t walked the corridors.
So many more to be saved. At least I could save one.
I rescued a human today.

Many Arigato’s to Sayako Katoh who sent the above poem/story to us. No matter if it’s a rescued dog or cat, they sure do make human’s lives better. Please take a moment and pass this poem/story on to others.

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!

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.

100 Dogs Need Help

SOS!! ARK has been hit with another emergency in the wake of a breeder arrest. Some 100 dogs, miniature breeds of all kinds, mostly mothers and puppies, are in urgent need of temporary or permanent shelter with the threat the dogs will be sent to the pound by Nov. 16 following the collapse of a temporary housing arrangement. Anyone who can help is asked to contact ARK (tokyoark[at]arkbark.net or call 080-6146-3889 (English) or 080-6517-8913 (Japanese)).

Animal Shelter ARK Celebrates Publication

Every week, the photos of cats and dogs seeking homes are presented in the Japan Times in collaboration with and in support of the nonprofit organization Animal Refuge Kansai. This week, ARK is anticipating the publication of its full-color photo collection “Rescue! Elizabeth Oliver’s Animal Refuge.” (Japanese title: エリザベス・オリバーの動物シェルター)

Book-signings with shelter founder Elizabeth Oliver will be held in Tokyo on Nov. 16 and in Osaka’s Umeda Kinokuniya on Nov. 22.

A full-color, 128-page, B5-size photo collection, “Rescue!” features photos by professional photographer Kyoko Harada and includes the history of ARK, an interview with Oliver and, most of all, beautiful photographs and introductions of many of the animals that live or have lived at the shelter.

“All the animals pictured in this book have come to ARK from sad backgrounds; abandoned, stray, thrown away, given up, abused,” a passage from the book reads. “But look at these animals now; relaxed, healthy and loving. They are the lucky ones.”

In addition to its rehoming activities ARK seeks to raise awareness of animal welfare in Japan and promote what it calls the “Five Freedoms” for animals: freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom to express normal behavior and freedom from fear and distress.

Though founded by a non-Japanese and the first Japanese organization to become an International Associate of the RSPCA (England’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), ARK strives to work hand in hand with Japanese and Japan’s authorities to bring about change. Oliver, in an excerpt from the book, says, “Rather than criticizing local governments, individuals, and organziations, ARK hopes that they will, by seeing ARK’s methods and facilities, change to treat animals more humanely.”

“Rescue!” will be available in bookstores from Nov. 7 and through Amazon the following day. However, ARK is asking supporters to further help the animals’ cause and hold off purchases until the week of Nov. 16 or to reserve a copy of the book through ARK’s Tokyo branch. The reason for the at-first-seemingly unusual request is that, if 300 books are sold at Tokyo’s Kinokuniya bookstore that week, the book has a good chance of being put on the store’s “Best-selling List”. This list is picked up by stores around Japan, meaning “Rescue!” will go to local stores nationwide, a huge boon to the
organization’s work.

‘‘Rescue!’’ a photo collection to be published on November 7 by Animal Refuge Kansai, features one of the shelter’s former animals, Yuu, an abused dog who is now preparing for a new life in England. The shelter’s founder, Elizabeth Oliver, and friends are seen on the book’s promotional sleeve.

This article was originally published in the Japan Times on Saturday, November 1, 2008.

Briar Simpson: Offering Shelter from Life’s Storms

Tokyo ARK’s Briar Simpson (who is also a member of Angels with Fur) was recently featured in a huge article by the Japan Times.

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It’s the single most stressful job I’ve ever had. It’s also the best job,” says Briar Simpson of Tokyo’s Animal Refuge Kansai.

“Just sending out one more e-mail can make the difference. It can mean 15 more years.” And in Simpson’s work, those 15 years represent a lifetime, the lives that she, as the Tokyo representative of Japan’s most active animal shelter, helps save.

The New Zealand native, a resident of Japan for 16 years, has worked with ARK at its Tokyo office since shortly after it began in 2005. She has been directly or indirectly involved in helping find homes for some 120 animals.

The youngest of three sisters, Simpson was born in Auckland and grew up in Wellington. “Animals were always a huge comfort for me,” she says, describing how, from the age of 10, she volunteered at the local SPCA where, too young to be entrusted with walking dogs, she spent most of her time cleaning cages. She also fostered kittens and puppies and the adult dogs who would jump the shelter fence. Her experience from these early days serves her well today.

Also, her desire to work with animals was there from the very beginning. On a recent trip back to New Zealand, she found, looking through old papers and notebooks, reference after reference to this dream. “Written across one page was the simple statement ‘I want to help animals,’ ” she says.

Though her current work with animals comes as no surprise, working for an NPO in Tokyo is not the form Simpson initially envisioned her lifework would take. “I went into business with the idea that I would become wealthy and then be in a position to help animals,” she says with a chuckle. After receiving a business degree in finance in her homeland, she came to Japan and completed her master’s in international trade at Waseda University. Wanting to volunteer at a shelter, she heard of ARK, contacted them and was offered a job at its then new Tokyo branch.

Simpson’s current role at ARK, a shelter founded by Elizabeth Oliver of England, is simply put, “to coordinate the whole thing,” from finding foster homes and permanent homes for animals, to PR, fund-raising and educational programs for children. “Basically, I do everything from cleaning the toilets,” Simpson, 37, says, again with her easy laugh. Somewhat ironic is the fact that “90 percent of my work is helping people. We bring together those who need help with those who want to help and the result is we help an animal.”

Though a long way from home, Simpson was perfect for the job in Tokyo. In addition to excellent Japanese, her experience with animals is something often found lacking here. “I think I bring a lot to the job,” she says with amicable confidence. “I’ve been a volunteer, a foster parent, I know what it’s like to want to help but not be able to help. I know what it’s like to want to help a kitten but not know what to do, where to go,” she says.

The job is stressful to be sure, though Simpson says the worst of the work, coming into frustrating contact with the snarl of red tape and bureaucratic thinking at Japan’s pounds or trying to shut down a hellish breeding factory or other such cases of cruelty and neglect is more the realm of the group’s founder, Elizabeth Oliver.

Simpson admits that if she were called on to try to deal with the horror cases, “I think I would lose my objectivity.” Still, her present work with an endless stream of unwanted, neglected, abused, homeless, often traumatized cats and dogs, kittens and puppies, all desperate for homes, is no walk in the park.

Cases where animals are mismatched with new owners only to have to return to the shelter or cases where animals remain in the shelter for years Simpson sees as “failures” on her part. Why the harsh criticism? “Because,” she says, “our animals are perfect.”

Low points, Simpson says, are an everyday occurrence in her work. She claims she has come to terms with them and that nagging voice that asks “are we doing enough?”

“I’ve accepted that the work is never-ending” and tries not to burden other members of the staff with any personal emotional roller-coasters. Describing herself as “easy to get along with, not moody” she is definitely even-keeled, but does admit to having a constant “certain level of tension.” Being able to switch off is her biggest challenge. “I try to allow myself a bit of time to feel good about each success story.”

Switching off is hard when you can never forget that for every animal you save there are hundreds you didn’t save, that you work in a country where 1,200 cats and dogs are killed every day, where shelters at which the animals are safe and cared for are rare, little-known and even less understood. Working with animals and in animal welfare in general has a very negative image in Japan,” says Simpson. “It’s surprising. I don’t really understand it,” she says. “When people learn I work with abandoned animals they look at me like I’m nuts or like I don’t have enough to do. It’s an image I want to change.”

A natural diplomat, Simpson will try to explain the many cases of neglect by saying they arise from “a different understanding of animals” in Japan and a “lack of experience” with animals that can lead to unfortunate situations.

By any definition, there is a general lack of meaningful support. “Many people are afraid to get involved. They’re afraid to initiate the process of rescue if they personally can’t care for an animal.” A dearth of legislation and enforcement of existing laws frustrates attempts to help animals. In many other countries, animal welfare agents could easily take an abused or neglected animal into protective custody. Not so in Japan.

“It’s not all heartbreak,” Simpson says, “and more people are getting involved.” The change Simpson hopes for, she believes will come from Tokyo. Awareness of the animal-welfare situation is growing. More shelters or grassroots initiatives are sprouting up, many of them started by non-Japanese. An increasing number of corporations donating to shelters such as ARK is making it easier for others to follow suit. These budding trends ARK hopes will also help expedite its bid for NPO certification. Though the shelter has been a registered NPO since 1999, certification would add the attraction of tax-deductible donations.

And, of course, sometimes it’s the animals that bring the greatest joy, as with the seemingly bleakest cases, when those thought “unhomable” find new homes and new hope and become Simpson’s personal touchstones reminding her, above all, to hang in there.

Tetta and Bolo were two such gems. Tetta, a stray found in appalling condition (“there was nothing cute about him”), diagnosed with permanent neural damage to his eyes, was in very real danger of becoming one of the rare cases where the ARK veterinarians make the decision many Japanese cringe from and the majority of Japanese vets refuse to make, the decision to euthanize. With a last desperate plea, however, not only Tetta, but his sister as well, were able to find a home — a home together — with a loving and caring family in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Bolo was another high point. The golden retriever had a “pretty awful past but the sweetest nature ever.” He also was an older dog and had a skin problem in need of regular treatment. Despite his lovable nature, Bolo spent long, lonely years at the shelter. In the end though, he too was able to find a home with an older couple from Niigata. “The older animals are so often looked over but they make wonderful companions,” Simpson points out. “And they are so grateful to be out of the shelter.”

Simpson herself adopted an 11-year-old dog from another shelter and spent several happy years together until his death this past January at the age of 17. It was obviously love.

In the end, being able to weather the heady mix of the best and the baddest against a backdrop of emotionally and often physically exhausting work, comes down to remembering who she really serves — the animals. And they, in turn, serve time and time again, as Simpson’s raison d’etre.

“Whenever we’re having an exceptionally bad day,” she says, “we look at a particular animal’s face, a picture in the office, maybe of an animal who was going to be gassed. And, it doesn’t matter how rude someone is or how bad your day is going, how wrong something has gone, you know you’re
working for an animal that can’t help itself. It’s a very strong motivator.”

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ARK will be publishing its book ‘‘Rescue: Elizabeth Oliver’s Animal Refuge,’’ a photo collection and bilingual history and introduction to the shelter and its animals, on Nov. 6. A book signing by Elizabeth Oliver will be held on Sunday, Nov. 16 in the main (old) Kinokuniya bookstore in Tokyo’s Shinjuku. For more information see the Animal Refuge Kansai web site.

Originally published in the Japan Times on Saturday, October 11, 2008. Photo by Takayuki Osumi. (Read the article on the Japan Times site.)

Caring for a Rescued Kitten

If you find yourself in charge of raising a kitten that is too young to have been separated from its mother, you may find that there is very little information available on exactly how to do the job of a mother cat. David from the Japan Cat Network has kindly offered his advice about this tricky undertaking based on his years of experience with rescuing kittens in Japan.

(Please note that this advice is for taking care of VERY YOUNG kittens who are too young to take care of themselves. A kitten that is old enough to be separated from its mother does not need this much maintenance. We don’t want to scare off any potential adopters who might think that raising a kitten is this much work!)

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One of the most useful skills a cat rescue group could have is taking care of kittens. It is, frankly, a skill many vets do not have. If you feel your otherwise good vet is not so good with kittens try another vet, and learn to do more things yourself.

Rescue

If you see a tiny kitten, and want to help it, you probably have just the one chance. If you wait til a more convenient time, or call someone else to please help it, it may be too late. If you see it with a mother cat, don’t remove it, but if it is by itself then it was probably abandoned there by a person. Search the vicinity for other kittens. There could be more a few steps away. If you don’t have much
experience with kittens like with feeding or recognizing the signs of dehydration, then get to a vet right away.

First Aid

Little kittens won’t get a fever even if they are very sick. They can’t because their bodies can not control their temperature. They will easily die from exposure to the heat or to the cold. So get them to a room or basket where there is a good temperature. Kittens will dehydrate easily, You can syringe liquid into their mouth for them to swallow. Light sugar water or pet milk is good. Check well for cuts and scrapes, bumps and swellings. A small cut can abscess and kill in no time. Kittens get icky eyes for lots of reasons. Most are not serious but need medicine. Medicines that are fine for adult cats may
not be ok for kittens. Ask your vet.

Bottling

Little kittens need milk about every 4 hours – Try to get 6 hours of sleep if you can – feeding last thing before bed and first thing in the morning. We greatly prefer the esbilac powdered milk, and the esbilac bottles and nipples. Get extra nipples at the start. They will wear out, be bitten through and you’ll screw some up cutting too big a hole. In bottling kittens, the goal is to get the kitten to suck. If the kitten is merely swallowing the milk that you drip into their mouth, they will not drink enough to survive. That is really just first aid. If they are too stressed they won’t suck. So be patient. Try and if you don’t have success after a few minutes, set the kitten back in its box and try again soon.

The Poop and the Pee

They can’t do it on their own. They will need to pee soon after bottling. There is some technique but basically take a tissue and pat pat pat. Then out it should gush into your tissue. Have the box handy. Depending on the age they will not poop every day. Keep ‘em clean but be careful not to irritate. If their genital area gets red and sensitive, they may need ointment from your vet.

Separating

Let’s say you rescue 3 different kittens from 3 different places, and they have the typical things kittens get. One has a sneeze maybe from exposure to herpes. One has diarrhea from coxidium. One has ringworm (a fungus not a parasite). If you bunk them in the same box, after a few days all three will be sneezing, pooping diarrhea and losing hair and whiskers from ringworm. You have to separate kittens until you know they don’t have something which can be passed to another kitten. Also wash or disinfect your hands when going from kitten to kitten, which are from different litters

Cleaning

Little kittens did not enough of mothers milk so are vulnerable to all the germs we live with. Cats may clean themselves but kittens don’t. That’s momma’s job. So, you will have to learn to wash the kittens. Don’t get water in their eyes. Don’t get soap on their face. Don’t let them be exposed even for seconds to the cold air while they are wet. Use a blow dryer to dry them completely.

The Long and the Short of it

Some kittens will not make it no matter what you do. It’s hard to lose them because of the intensity to which you have cared for them. Even the most skilled kitten carer (their mother) would lose some. There is much more detailed information to be found on line through many sources. And a good kitten vet will give you the practical help that could only be given when the kitten and vet are there in person.

Three Kittens Need Homes

These three kittens were abandoned by their mother and are being cared for by a kind Japanese family. If you have room in your heart (and your room) for any of them, please contact Angels with Fur and we will put you in touch with the family who is trying to find homes for them.

The kittens are in Saitama, but the family will deliver them to the surrounding area (e.g. Tokyo) if necessary.

JCN Needs Air Conditioner

Japan Cat Network (JCN, http://www.japancatnet.com/), a group based in Kansai, works to rescue cats and teach people about the benefits of having their pets spayed or neutered (which is not as common in Japan as it should be). JCN recently rescued a huge number of kittens from a park and they are all staying in one room of the group’s founders’ house. As you know, it has been getting VERY hot recently, and the kittens are suffering from the heat. The group’s leaders, David and Susan Wybenga have sent out a plea for someone to donate an air conditioner so that the kittens can be made more comfortable.

See:
http://japancatnet.com/blog/2008/07/desperately-seeking-air-conditioner/

If you can help, please contact Japan Cat Network. Many kittens will thank you!

Help the Hirakata Project: Japan Cat Network

The following article is from the Japan Times. David and Susan are members of Angels with Fur. I hope that our group can help them with this important work.

The Japan Cat Network, a grassroots animal welfare group in Shiga Prefecture organized and run by David Wybenga and his wife, Susan Roberts, has put out a plea for help with its Hirakata City Project. Initially featured in The Japan Times on Jan. 26 of this year, the network was asked in March to check out a park near the city of Hirakata, located between Osaka and Kyoto.

The situation at Yamada-Ike Koen was dire, utterly shocking. More than 50 cats, in various stages of health and disease, were found roaming the park. There were no signs of a TNR (trap, neuter, release)
program such as Japan Cat Network promotes, and none of the males appeared to be neutered. Two of the park cats were so ill that they had to be taken to a vet immediately.

In April, the group trapped 28 cats, most of them female, and had them neutered. More trapping is scheduled for this weekend and the following week. Wybenga calls the project “amazing”, one that he believes has the power “to change public perception in Kansai”. “Of all the projects I’ve been involved
in, this is the one to get behind.”

In the meantime, five kittens, then 2 weeks old, were found abandoned in a cardboard box in a park restroom. Two were already dead. Three survived and are thriving and being fed every four hours. This past Monday, four more kittens were found abandoned. One had already died. These kittens and others were all taken in.

“Busy and sleepy,” the Wybengas have their hands full. “Once we finish one round of feeding it’s almost time for the next.” And, with presently 11 kittens on the bottle, the network is out of money and in desperate need of help, but determined to keep the project going.

The group is in need of experienced kitten fosterers, loving adoptive homes, money and milk replacement powder (Esbilac for cats). Also, Wybenga says, “if someone is in the area and wants to
participate more directly, contact me.”

Contact info[AT]japancatnet.com by e-mail or check out the group’s homepage at http://www.japancatnet.com.

Esbilac can be sent to:
David Wybenga,
173 Inae,
Hikone, Shiga,
521-1125