Animals Continue To Wait - The Story Of The Cover Cat

    

        
     Today is the second year after the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Pacific costal areas of Tohoku region. The result of the disaster was catastrophic and many continue to struggle with the scars of the disaster. Although the evacuations for the citizens were effective, there are voices that has been forgotten.. The animals.. People were forced to leave their animals behind and had no contingency plan for evacuating them.
    
     This is the story of the cover cat of a book entitled "Animals Continue To Wait" by Kosuke Ota, a Japanese photographer who returns and pays regular visits to the warning area in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in order to rescue the animals that were left behind and to record the life and death of them after the 311 disaster. 

     This video is about a cat Kosuke Ota met in one of his rescue missions. The story of this cat represents most of the animals' stories in Fukushima and makes Kosuke Ota remember them for the rest of his life. This cat is on the cover of the book "Animals Continue To Wait". The reason why it was left behind is explained in the book.

     The other book written by Kosuke Ota prior to the publication of "Animals Continue To Wait" is "Animals That Are Forgotten". These two books are very much worth reading..

Babysitting Ranko And Her Babies



Ranko is a grey tabby (who belongs to a friend of mine) that just gave birth to three babies a month ago. She is sweet, loving and a good mother!

 



Ranko and her thress babies

 

Yuutaro loves the kittens and Ranko is not afraid of him at all. In fact she'll rub on him

 

Baby hugging herself

"Mommy I love you!"

 

Cute!!

 

"Where's our mommy?"

 

All look like Ranko

 

The three tabby babies

 

Baby learning to walk

Happy Birthday To Cookie & Happy Chinese New Year!

 

Happy birthday Cookie! Miss you!!

Wakka's Skin Problem

Wakka's skin condition has not been good for the past one year.

 

He started from having desquamation and scabs on his back which then gradually spread throughout his body. After the wounds heal, they always leave permanent pigmented spots on his skin. I also notice that he has warm, red, paper thin skin, would not be as active as before with low appetite but still maintaining a rounded body shape. At the back of my mind, I was thinking of Cushing's syndrome as one of the differentials at that time. However, after consulting a few vets and a blood test done, no one is able to give me a definite diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Some said it is very common in these breed and we can do nothing, some said probably due to hormonal, diet, lifestyle...

 

Two courses of antibiotics seem to ease his skin problems only for a while. Soon after the completion of the antibiotic, the desquamation and scabs come back again. I tried to change his diet back to the vegetarian diet as he had no problems before that (back when he was still a puppy) but his condition didn't improve at all.

 

Things got worse in December after I sent both him and Ringo for boarding for a few days when I went to KL. Both of them had bad acne throughout their body and painful red ears. It is either the place where they were boarded was too dirty or the groomer pulled their fur in the ears too vigorously or both!

 

Since then, I started them on a special regime. Medicated shampoo to bathe twice a week and change them to strict hypoallergenic diet (this is most difficult especially when they gave the innocent "can-I-have-some-snacks" look) together with ointment for a week on their acne and ears. The results are, their ears have healed, Ringo's acne are all gone now and Wakka's skin condition has improved. There are still some desquamation and scabs however his skin is no longer red and warm like it used to be.

 

I am happy to see that his condition has improved but a longer observation is needed to see if all the hard work really pays off.

 

Medicated Shampoo
 

Hypoallergenic food with hydrolysed protien

 

Hypoallergenic treats that I assume they don't taste good at all

Merry X'Mas 2012

Hey it's Christmas again!
We've made through the year and NO.. the world is not yet at its end. We've all survived.. lol..
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday!!