I don't know the exact date but sometime in the next few days is Aya's 1 year birthday.
The Aya story for those of you who don't know it already:
December 6th 2008
After a late night drinking party I was taking a cab home from the center of town. the cabbies like to take short cuts through the back alleyways around the major intersections. The last corner is a blind one where the narrow street is hemmed in by cinderblock walls just before the street rejoins the main one. It's nearly midnight. I see something move in the middle of the corner. I scream "koneko!" at the driver just in time. He swerves around a tiny kitten in the street. As we pass another cab going the opposite way also dodges the kitten.
I'm not technically allowed cats in my place as is the case in most Japanese apartments. I think about it for a moment, then lie to the cabbie and ask him to stop at the grocery store, telling him I'm hungry. I pay my fare get out and immediately walk back to where we met the kitten.
The kitten is now trying to scale the cinder block wall on one side of the road. Clearly too young to be on its own, mom and siblings are nowhere to be seen. I pluck the kitten off the wall, tuck it in my jacket and walk home. It's too dark to get a really good look at her.
When I get home I turn on the light and behold the dirtiest smallest most flea-ridden kitty I've ever seen. Both of her eyes are practically swollen/glued shut with a bad URI.
She was ready to eat kitten mush after she got over her 'cold' (she had a full mouth of little baby teeth) and her eyes changed within a week or two after getting her, so we guessed she was about 3-4 weeks when I found her in the first week of december.
It took 3 weeks of meds, vet visits and nebulizer treatments to get her well. And having little rescue kitten experience I really didn't know if she was going to make it. She turned out to be one fiesty little survivor. It shows in her personality.
So now, nearly one year later:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYA!
The Aya story for those of you who don't know it already:
December 6th 2008
After a late night drinking party I was taking a cab home from the center of town. the cabbies like to take short cuts through the back alleyways around the major intersections. The last corner is a blind one where the narrow street is hemmed in by cinderblock walls just before the street rejoins the main one. It's nearly midnight. I see something move in the middle of the corner. I scream "koneko!" at the driver just in time. He swerves around a tiny kitten in the street. As we pass another cab going the opposite way also dodges the kitten.
I'm not technically allowed cats in my place as is the case in most Japanese apartments. I think about it for a moment, then lie to the cabbie and ask him to stop at the grocery store, telling him I'm hungry. I pay my fare get out and immediately walk back to where we met the kitten.
The kitten is now trying to scale the cinder block wall on one side of the road. Clearly too young to be on its own, mom and siblings are nowhere to be seen. I pluck the kitten off the wall, tuck it in my jacket and walk home. It's too dark to get a really good look at her.
When I get home I turn on the light and behold the dirtiest smallest most flea-ridden kitty I've ever seen. Both of her eyes are practically swollen/glued shut with a bad URI.
She was ready to eat kitten mush after she got over her 'cold' (she had a full mouth of little baby teeth) and her eyes changed within a week or two after getting her, so we guessed she was about 3-4 weeks when I found her in the first week of december.
It took 3 weeks of meds, vet visits and nebulizer treatments to get her well. And having little rescue kitten experience I really didn't know if she was going to make it. She turned out to be one fiesty little survivor. It shows in her personality.
So now, nearly one year later:
