satooya news

Hey y'all.

Stellaluna in the pantry, by my mom.

I'm still in Fukushima, surrounded by fur babies.

fur babies, by Anna Vieste

These are some puppies we recently picked up, at about four weeks old. It's really dangerous to pick them up because everyone who does wants to take one home. They are delicious.

yummy puppy diego, by anna vieste

And, AND, the chickens got adopted! All eighty of them! They went to a little natural (pesticide free, they grow a lot of their own crops) bakery down in Okayama called Hototogisu. I love that name. It means cuckoo.

The chickens are now being put to work as free range layers at a little bakery down south.

They've had the eggs tested (again) and they have been deemed fit for consumption. All that trucking in of food and water over the months seems to have been a good thing.

Speaking of adoption, my dad came out to volunteer three times, and he couldn't resist taking home a couple of the kitties. Stellaluna, pictured in the pantry above, was so named because of her huge ears in proportion to her head, making her look like a bat. She was the runt of the litter, a spunky, tiny little thing who we didn't think would make it, but who climbed up the bars of the cage and cried in such a big voice we imagined her saying STELLLLLA! like Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Along with Stella came her sister, who my mom named Chibitora.

Chibitora is super cuddly.

Long ago, we had a pair of sister cats, one a tuxedo, and one a brown tabby called Tiger. Tigger ran away within the first year or so, but Tuxy stayed with us her whole life. These two new little girls resemble Tux and Tig so closely that my mom named Chibi in Tiger's honor and muses about reincarnation (生まれ変わり, umarekawari). Chibi is a snugglebug.

There are still so many cats out in the zone, and some dogs too. Today I got a call from someone who wants us to pick up five koi, about a meter long apiece. That's fifteen feet of carp, people! Anybody got space in their pond?

The animals in this post are dedicated to Dharma and Carrie, who sent me a donation and hosted me for dinner in October, and JB, who kicked my ass into posting again. Thanks dolls.