I’m linking this post to Sunday Post, Mailbox Monday, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

So this month has not gone the way that I planned. I was really looking to sitting down and getting reading done, but that didn’t happen. In fact, I’ve been trying to read the same book all month. I sat down at the beginning of the month to read it, and I don’t think I made it halfway through. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone a month without completing at least one book.

 

 

Let’s start with the good.
Kimiko (the cat that I rescued who was dumped before Christmas) found her forever home and is currently being spoiled. I also rescued a 3 month old kitten, while out doing TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release), who was clearly sick. I got Sriracha back to full health and worked on socializing him. He’s now with a foster through the island’s local rescue group.

Speaking of which, I am now the TNR director for that very same rescue. I’m helping them start up their own TNR program so that more cats can be helped. I’m really excited about this new chapter. My role will be more of an admin thing by organizing vet appointments and making sure things run smoothly. However, I’m hoping that word spreads and we are able to get more people involved with wanting to TNR the local cat population. With that being said, I do still plan to go out and do TNR myself. It’s great to help organize a department, but I also want to be out there actively helping as well.

It wasn’t all about cats this month, though. At the beginning of the month, we went to our first shrine and a temple. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I was able to start my goshuincho and get by first two stamps/seals in it. If you’re not familiar with a goshuincho is, it’s kind of like a passport book. When you visit a shrine or temple, you take your goshuincho to the office and they will stamp it with their seal and write the date you were there. Since we had gone during the new year celebration period, I was able to purchase a Hamaya which is considered a good luck charm for the new year. It has a lot of history and lore behind it, but today it is used as a good luck charm.

 

Now for the bad.
I tried to rescue a cat that my husband found near his work. The cat was in rough shape and I spent the entire day running her between two vets. The first vet said that she needed a blood transfusion but that I would need to produce the cat who would donate blood. They then gave me a bunch of medicine, sent me home, and told me to bring her back within a couple of days for a follow up. So, I brought Sakura home, only to literally sit there and watch this poor thing fade and struggle in pain an hour after getting back to the house. So, a friend and I rushed her an hour south to another vet where they had blood donors available for her. However, it was too late for Sakura. The poor thing died on the table while they were trying to help her. It was a huge blow for me and kind of set the stage for the month.

I had also teamed up with a couple of other ladies who go out to do TNR. We created a Facebook page to share our journey, opened up donation links for people to help us, as a group, with the cost of TNR, and everything was going great… until it wasn’t. This weekend the other two members got into a fight. One member kicked the other from the FB group, the person who was kicked then went into the Paypal/Venmo and yanked all the donation money. I was completely horrified by the lack of maturity and rashness I saw. Needless to say that I removed myself from that, and I will be going back to doing my own stuff when it comes to TNR and rescue work. I will assist when needed, but I think for now I will just stay in my own lane, work on building the TNR department with the rescue and doing my own TNR work alone.

If that wasn’t chaotic enough, I also found out that my family back home in the states has Covid. Thankfully, as I type this, my mother and father do not have it. However, my sister and niece do, and they live with my parents. I’m really nervous about that since my father is high risk. I’m just hoping that he doesn’t catch it.

So yeah… this month has been… well, I truly don’t have words if I’m being honest. It stated off SO GREAT. I felt like I was making a difference. I felt like I found my people on the island, and then it just imploded.

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I’m linking this post to Sunday Post, Mailbox Monday, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

Well, it’s the start of a new year. Looking back at 2021 I realized that I had my world flipped upside down. I quit my job right before the new year, found out we were moving to Okinawa in June. Got ready for said move. Said goodbye to all my friends and family before hopping on a plane to a foreign country. Then dealt with adjusting to the new country while covid raged on, shutting down locations upon our arrival. Not to mention finding my calling while out here by helping as many stray, feral, and dumped cats on the island. So, it’s no surprise that my reading and blogging took a nosedive. I kept beating myself up for my lack of reading and blogging, but at the end of the day, we are all human. Reflecting back on the last year really put into perspective why I haven’t been as active as I’ve wanted to be. And ya know what, that’s okay.

I won’t lie, my focus has shifted a lot from blogging and more into helping the cats here in Okinawa. There are just so many of them. It’s insane. Not only do I spend a lot of time doing TNR (trap, neuter, release), but I have rescued and taken in a handful of cats and got them either into a home or into a foster system with the local rescue on island. Unfortunately, I did lose a couple of the cats. My first being Kazu. He was a feral cat that was not only deaf but had a diaphragmatic hernia that needed emergency surgery. While he survived the surgery, the vet got back to the office the next morning to find that he has choked in the middle of the night and passed away. The other angel baby is Leeloo who was a tiny kitten that was battling upper respiratory infection and parasites. Sadly, my friend (who was holding her at her house), woke up to find that the kitten had passed away in the night. While it has been really difficult to get past these losses, it pushes me even more to continue to help as many babies as I can. This past month was especially hard because I came across 3 dumped cats. One I have a friend watching who is about to go into the foster system for the local rescue, I have a different friend who has taken on the other cat which has a upper respiratory infection and mange, and the third is one that I have in my custody. All three of these babies just randomly popped up in an area with no one looking for them. It’s heartbreaking to witness, and sadly this is a common occurrence since I am on an island with a heavy military population that rotates on and off the island. So a lot of animals get dumped when the military members move off island. While I try to focus more on doing TNR, I can not sit by and watch an animal suffer. Hence, my current house guest. If anyone would like to help me on my mission, I will leave my links below.

So, with all of that being said, what does 2022 hold in store for me? Hopefully a lot of success stories, a bit more reading, a lot of exploration of this beautiful area, and some much need rest and relaxation.

What are you hoping for with the new year?

 

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