BY THE WAY

Yet another addition to the household:

Chiro is back! Her foster pop got too busy to properly care for her, so she's hanging her hat at my way station for a bit. She's a lovely girl, though a bit tetchy with the other dogs - likes her humans all to herself (talk about mother-daughter rivalry). She's looking for a new placement, so if you're looking to help out a furry friend for awhile, drop me a line!

Torta de Elote

I posted a recipe for this yummy corn torte over at Green Zebras - kind of like a cornbread pie, but has a bit more protein and a little less bready. Good with a salad for dinner!

Scones on The Billfold!

My chocolate peanut butter scones made it onto my new favorite site, The Billfold!

Rock for kitties

We're having a benefit concert this Sunday at What the Dickens in Ebisu. Only 1,000 yen for six bands, 100% of the door and a portion of the bar sales go to JCN! If you can't attend in person, there's a live webcam on the WtD website.

Kate did the artwork for this flyer. Wicked pissah.

free/flea markets

I wrote an article about flea markets for the Stars and Stripes' "Stripes Kanto," an arts and culture supplement for the Tokyo area. Here's the link!

The parade continues

Shima and Nicki have gone into foster care in other homes, yay! They're both doing a lot better and got well enough to move into quieter quarters. But just as they cleared out, here comes... Sakura!

Sakura is actually Chiro's daughter, and is from the same household in Namie, Fukushima. Her owners are still living in temporary housing and have still not been able to return home. Sakura came to us already a whole year ago, only six months old, and went into foster care in Tokyo with the wonderful Mrs. T. However, Mrs. T is having some health issues and needs a foster for her foster while she is getting them addressed.

So Sakura has moved in too.

Luckily, she and Poppy are getting along like gangbusters. Since Poppy is still a puppy and still doesn't completely understand dog socialization, Sakura is acting as a mom figure and doing some training. They wrestle and play, until Poppy bites too hard... then Saku-chan delivers the smackdown. Poppy is learning.

By the way, Nakio's family has decided to keep the name despite my exhortations to change it if they liked, and explaining that it was just a nickname. Crying Boy lives!

Veggie gyoza

I veganized a gyoza recipe from the "Men's Cookbook" Taichi X Kentaro Danshi Gohan no Hon and posted it over at Green Zebras. Handmade gyoza the best.

Kitty City

You may remember Yam-kun

Cat central around here. Hime got adopted, but Poppy is still here, and in addition to the sorta-feral-but-not-totally-but-enough-that-I-can't-really-wrangle-him-into-a-cat-carrier (Kuroneko) Yamato (aka Yam-kun), Nicki, Peetie, and Shima have all come down from Fukushima to have dental surgery.

Nicki is very demanding of your attention

They got their chompers pulled at the always fabulous TNR Clinic (I really need to do a whole post on them, they are an amazing, compassionate resource for animal welfare in Japan) and are now recovering at mi casa, aka the JCN satellite shelter. This place is a zoo. 

Sweet Shima was very finicky before surgery because eating was so painful. This skin and bones girl has put on some poundage (ounceage?) since the operation.

Hime and Poppy

Hime and Poppy have come to stay for a bit.

These rambunctious pups are about three months old, and come from the Namie area of Fukushima. Actually, we know their owner - a guy who has helped us on numerous occasions to pick up and care for his evacuated neighbors' dogs.

This man, Mr. K, has not evacuated. He is still living in his Namie home with his dogs. And like almost all the dogs in the entire prefecture (at least the rural areas), his dogs run free and are not spayed or neutered.

Predictably, his dogs have gotten pregnant. On multiple occasions. Did you know that a dog's gestation cycle is only about two months? This means it's actually possible to have more than one litter a season. Definitely possible to have more than one litter a year. That's a lot of puppies.

Now as much as I love - love! - puppies, I actually don't want them to ever be born on my watch. But they're so cute! And they are so precious! And precious life! I know, but the thing is, as much as I don't want more puppies to be born, they will always be born. In spades. And many many of them will die, because their owner drowns them in the river, or they are running around and get hit by cars (as some of our rescues' sibs were), or are attacked and killed by other, bigger animals (as some of our rescues' sibs were), or will go to the pound and be gassed to death when they don't find a good family before their adorable, snackable puppy faces mature into adorable, but less desirable, adult doggy faces. As so many are every single day all over the world. SO MANY.

So anyway, though Mr. K had resorted with previous litters to "returning them to nature" (via the river), he agreed to give us this batch, and think about letting us spay his dogs. One small victory.

There are five siblings. Three have been spoken for. Hime is going to a trial family soon. Poppy is available for adoption. She is extremely snackable.