ARK Tails

Aimaru was found wandering around outside a convenience store, so the owner brought him to us. Because he’s not scared of people, we think he was probably abandoned by his family. He’s a very friendly and interesting cat! The staff who take care of the cats highly recommend him, so they took pictures of him and asked me to put him on this blog! They’re working really hard to rehome him.


All Aimaru wants to do is play. When a staff member comes to clean the litter box he jumps right into it! He just won’t get out of their way! And after they’ve laid out new newspaper he grabs it in his mouth and rips it apart. But don’t worry; he only does this when the staff is cleaning the litter box!


Aimaru is living in an enclosure with older cats. He’s always pestering the other cats to play with him, but they just get angry at him, so he has to play by himself. Unfortunately, there is no space in the other enclosures for him. We told you before about the crowded state of our cat enclosures here.


He was pretty skinny when he came to us but he loves food and is now getting a little fat! He has no dislikes and will eat anything. What an easy cat to take care of!

Please consider Aimaru if you want a cat!

Beano has come back to us after being adopted as a puppy eight years ago.
Apparently his owners had to move out of their house and could no longer care for their dogs.

In Beano’s former home, there were also two Labrador Retrievers who were kept indoors. But according to a photograph sent to us by the owners, Beano was kept outside, chained to his kennel. He was so skinny that you could see his ribcage and hipbones.


We wanted to help the dogs as soon as possible, but we had to have the owners wait until we had room in our kennels. During that time we were able to find an adopter for the two labs, where they could go as soon as their owners got them spayed and neutered. However, the days were going by without any sign of this happening, so we made the arrangements ourselves for the two labs to be fixed so they could go to their new home.

Then the owners informed us that they had found a house where they could have one dog. It looked like Beano could live with them in their new house, and the two labs would be happy with the new family. However, the owners said they were going to negotiate to have two dogs and keep the two labs at their new house.
That is how Beano came back to ARK.

When our staff went to the owners’ home to pick up Beano, they found him chained in the yard under the hot sun.


We learned that Beano will jump over a low fence and that he is afraid of thunder. Considering this as well as his age, we’d like to find him a home where he can live indoors. He has a habit of lifting his leg up and peeing wherever, but a diaper will quickly take care of this problem! Marking can be a calming signal and will stop once he knows he is safe in his new home. When I was fostering 10-year-old Wreath, he stopped marking on his own in about a month.


Beano has a very sweet personality and is friendly with dogs and humans. He is an old guy at the age of 9, but it is too sad to think of him living out his life at ARK. We would really like to find him a new family.


Poor Beano has lived all his life out in the yard while his Labrador siblings got to live with their owners inside the house.
Doesn’t Beano deserve to have a loving family and home all of his own?

What are we going to do?? There is nothing we can do!!
There’s a rush of kittens now and ARK is almost drowning in them!
If anybody is thinking of getting a cat, or anybody living around ARK is thinking of getting a cat, please come and give a good home to one of ARK’s kittens!


There are some kittens that are not even a month old, and still drinking milk. They need so much attention for feeding and using the litter box that we have to take them home with us. The staff members taking care of the kittens told me that the kittens have finally been able to settle down and sleep for 30 minutes at a time. The staff have to take on extra work on top of their own work by taking care of the kittens, and they’re not getting much sleep at night because they have to get up and give them milk.

I want to believe that the people who abandon animals understand the hardships and self-sacrifices we make for the animals.


Kittens get sick easily. If one gets sick then little by little it passes the sickness along to the other kittens, so we have to pay close attention to them.


”This narrow cage is so boring! I want my mommy and daddy to come get me…”


The pictures you see here are only of a few of the kittens. As I’m not in charge of the kittens, I haven’t had any direct contact with them so I don’t know how many there are. (Maybe 30?!)

The cutest thing about kittens is their mannerisms! We have a video for you! (You can hear the sounds of the toys and the barking of dogs in the video.)
By the way, the sleepyhead above is Kin-chan.


Kin-chan started washing his face in the middle of it. Isn’t he cute?

I’ve taken charge of Momo, as I mentioned in Atomi’s article.

Momo was the most easily frightened of the four stray dog sisters, so we thought that she’d be difficult to rehome. I wasn’t in charge of her, so I saw her around ARK but didn’t know her well and I haven’t had much to do with her before. Although it’s only for four days, I’m going to have her try a homestay at my house.



Tonight, we come home together from ARK. Into the living room in the crate. The resident dogs’ interest fades, and after two hours the crate door is opened. Whenever my other dogs walk by or look in, she growls inside the crate. She doesn’t mind if I look in, so I clean up the poo she did, and she obediently cooperates.



I left the crate door open all night, but she didn’t come out. Sometimes she sticks just her head out to look around. I leave her as she is and take my other dogs for their walk. It seems she explored the room while she was left alone. She has peed in the toilet spot. But she noticed our return and went back inside the crate.

In the afternoon she finally says goodbye to the crate. She seems to be interested in the resident dogs, coming up to them from behind and smelling them, or following them around. She is afraid if they come to her, though, and she wrinkles her muzzle and shows her gums to say “Stay back!”.

At night, we have a visitor, but Momo doesn’t bark. She doesn’t seem particularly afraid and doesn’t hide. She sleeps at the guest’s feet. She doesn’t flee when spoken to or touched. She ate in the same place and had a good appetite.



First walk! We got in the car and went to the mountains to play. In the car, she was held by my husband in the passenger seat. I wanted to let her see lots of the outside world, so we didn’t put her in the crate. At first she was unsettled, but she grew more and more calm and drank in the view of the outside.


In the evening we went to the shopping district in front of the station. While walking and while observing from one spot, there were no incidents or excitement. We could walk with the leash slack, and she was calmer than I expected. I guess her tail was up about half the time and down half the time evenly. I gave her some cheese, but she only ate one bite. She was probably nervous, but I had fed her before we went out, so she wasn’t hungry (my mistake).


She put her head through the fence and watched the cars come and go with great interest. She didn’t show much reaction even when buses, trucks, or groups of bicycles went right by her, or car horns honked.


She sniffed and tried to go over to people who went by or stood nearby.


The station concourse. At times she pulled a little, but we walked around and saw the area at a leisurely pace. We tried going on overpasses and underpasses. She understandably pulled to get through the underpasses more quickly.



A walk in the area near my house. Normal houses and quiet tree-lined roads. At a busy intersection, we stopped to observe the traffic. The cars were going pretty fast and sometimes stopped very close, and there were also bicycles, but she was calm.

She can now wander around the house as she pleases. At some point she started using the dog bed too. She takes an interest in humans when they cause a commotion and follows them around. When I am in the kitchen, she is there by my feet, and if I move to the living room, she follows me. She does the same with my husband.

When I’m on the computer, she wanders around nearby. Like at ARK, she runs away if you try to touch her, so I hadn’t insisted on touching her, but somehow I felt it would be okay this time, so I petted her, and she held still, seeming to decide it was okay. When I stopped, she said, “Pet me.” What? You got used to that suddenly.


It was only four days, so I feel I only know Momo a little, but she doesn’t bark, she eats well, she can do her toilet business on pet sheets, she is obedient to humans and not aggressive. It was a new house and new people for her, but her attitude didn’t change toward guests, and the impression she gave me was more of a quiet and obedient dog than a scared or cowardly dog. She is not strong-spirited, but I found her easy to live with and care for.


She’s not accustomed to being held, so if you try to pick her up she will struggle, but she doesn’t panic or bite. Once you have hold of her she clings onto you, but doesn’t struggle or try to get down, so I think anyone could hold her. She is heavy though… If you can hold her, it should help when you go to the vet, or an unfamiliar environment, or another situation when you can’t let her walk. I think owners of dogs that don’t like being held will understand the advantage to this.


Momo’s Diary (1)
Momo-chan sure has grown up! I want to find her an adoptive family as soon as possible. She is inherently very cautious and easily scared, so she needs a family that will be patient while she gets used to them.


Also check out Sakura!