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!!

Changing Blog's Name

I'm changing the blog's name to Nora-Nyanko instead of Dolls'family
so say "Bye Bye" to http://dollsfamily.blogspot.com/
say "Hi" to http://nora-nyanko.blogspot.com/
=)

Conquering the New Stairs

What goes up must come down..

 

Unfortunately going down is not always as easy as it seems. They discovered their fear of height when they met this challenging stairs in the new house. They have no problem going up but they are afraid to come down. 



Yuutaro is building courage to go down

Yuutaro "MaoMao this stairs are scary"

MaoMao "Don't be a scaredy cat!"

MaoMao "See it is as easy as ABC"

Scratching his ear on the stair

MaoMao loves the stairs

Finally Yuutaro comes down

1,2.. 1,2..

Wakka's turn

Wakka "How~~"

 Wakka "Left hand or right hand first?"

Wakka "Can u carry me down please?"

 One little step to success

 Ringo as steady as usual 

D'Dee running down

 Too fast!

 



Back In Penang

It's been very long time and we are back in Penang! ..for a while..

 

This is the 3rd time for Yuutaro to be here.

 

I still remember it was a Chinese New Year Eve when Ringo started to be restless and refused to eat the dilicious 团圆饭 (Chinese New Year Eve dinner). She kept rinning up stairs and waited in front of my room door. After a few times of bringing her downstairs, I realised she might be in labour. I brought her up and as soon as I opened the door, she rushed into the box that I prepared for her. I felt strong contractions on her abdomen. Soon after that, she started bearing down and that's how I met the adorable Chinese New Year babies - Yuutaro and siblings!

Yuutaro is now so spoiled and loves attention all the time..

Yuutaro "Mommy, may I come in?"



He has a very long body >.<

 

Mummy Ringo.. still sexy



Ringo "Where's my baby?"
 

Uncle Wakka



Wakka "Once an uncle forever an uncle.."

 

Feline Fun in Love Cat Café, Sapporo

Love Cat Café ( らぶねこ) is one of the many cat cafés in Japan. 

The concept of cat cafés bloomed in Japan after the first cat café, Cat Flower Garden, started in Taipei, Taiwan in 1998. Given the time and space constraint in Japan, cat cafés provide the convenience of petting a cat with no responsibility of ownership. At the same time one can enjoy the relaxing environment with the cats between sips of your drink.

 

Charges for entering the cat cafés are by minutes. For example I took a 60 minutes normal course which cost ¥ 1,000 (and a ¥ 200 drink is included).

Love Cat Café is a home to 17 cats and like any other cat cafés, strict rules regarding the handling of cats are implemented. House pets and outside food are not allowed in the café and it is a non smoking café. Guests are not allowed to use flash cameras, wake any sleeping cats or carry any obviously unhappy cats.

The entrance

Interior of the café (pictures taken from http://www.loveneko.jp/pc/index.html)

 

Snacks are sold here for ¥ 100.. Feeding is not allowed an hour before and after their meals
 

Cat toys 

Hand croosing Karin

Sniff sniff bottom.. not stinky?

Niece "is that fish?"

Huh? Huh?

Barron "I am watching you"

Chuu~~! ♥

 

Doozing off.. zZzzz..

More sleeping pose

Free gifts

Links for Love Cat (らぶねこ) Café:
http://www.loveneko.jp/pc/index.html
http://loveneko2008.blog105.fc2.com/

Taiga and Bubbles are Adopted!

Taiga and Bubbles was adopted by Wendy, a young lady teacher. She came across their stories through pet finder and facebook. She has a kitten at home and hope to find companions for that kitten.

Although there were some twists and turns in finding a new home for Bubbles (which she was returned to us by an earlier adopter because she couldn't get along with the cat at home), I'm glad that Wendy is willing to adopt both of them.

Now, they are happy and get along well with the kitten in their new home.

Good news for them =)

 Taiga in new home

Bubbles in new home