シニア・傷病猫を救うねこひげハウス｜シェルター活動継続を目指して！

■ Now at Nekohige House

Nekohige House is an animal shelter that currently houses more than 30 cats that require therapeutic diets or are on daily medication, and more than 70 cats older than 7 years old. There are also several cats with kidney disease, epilepsy, and other illnesses, some that have had their legs removed due to necessity, and several that are blind.

 

Recently, we have received an increasing number of requests to take in cats that have no place to go and are in failing health.

As a result, the medical costs for the cats in our care at the shelter have become enormous, and as the cats we take in age, our costs to maintain the shelter are increasing each year.

 

 

Volunteer staff members work hard and carefully every day to care for shelter cats and clean the shelter. We also help solve problems regarding consultations and requests for cat issues from local residents. In addition to daily care, emergency shelter requests are increasing, so there is a growing need for staff who can work full-time as well as volunteers.

 

 

 

■To create a shelter where senior cats can live happily

The number of people who wish to adopt a cat as a member of their family is gradually increasing. However, compared to Western countries, the number of people who wish to adopt senior or sickly cats is small, and Japan is sometimes referred to as an underdeveloped country in terms of animal welfare. In fact, at Nekohige House, many of the people who wish to adopt a shelter cat often want a young, healthy cat or a cute kitten.

 

Not only kittens are being rescued. Many of them are cats that have been injured in traffic accidents, cats that have become displaced due to the hospitalization of elderly owners, and cats that have grown up in poor conditions due to the collapse of multi-cat households. The reality is that many of these cats are adults or seniors, and many of them have chronic diseases or physical handicaps (blindness, loss of one leg, etc.).

 

These cats require emergency surgery, hospitalization, or a lifetime of medication and care. Although Nekohige House does accept senior cats and cats with injuries or illnesses, very few people come forward to become foster parents because they naturally require more medical care than healthy cats. Therefore, many of these cats will live at the Nekohige House facility for the rest of their lives.

 

We would of course be very grateful if you could support the cost of maintaining the shelter through this crowdfunding campaign, but if even one more person would consider adopting an adult or senior cat as a family member through this opportunity, we at Nekohige House would be able to save even one more cat's life. Nekohige House will be able to save as many lives as possible.

 

 

 

■Chatoran's Story

Chatoran, who we protected in January 2022, had been kept in a small, dark hutch for most of his 19-year life as a cat, in a dirty and poor environment, and had been left with hairballs all over his body. Despite these conditions, he was gentle and sweet to both people and cats, and most of all, he was a strong child with a strong desire to live more.

 

He was found to be suffering from severe diabetes and kidney disease and had very little time left to live, but we made the decision to begin treatment in the hope that he would regain his cat-like lifestyle for the rest of his life, and we have watched over him with the hope that he would live a peaceful life for as long as possible.

 

Thanks to your warm support, we were able to continue his diabetes and kidney disease treatment, and Chaturan was able to live a peaceful life with his room-mates for only six months out of his 19-year life.

 

In July of this year, he passed away peacefully in the arms of the volunteer staff and his fellow cats.

 

 

 

■ What we can do with your support

The medical expenses of Nekohige House have been increasing year by year, and the burden is getting heavier. In addition, the monthly maintenance costs for the house, such as rent, utilities, and food, are very expensive.

Over the past three years, total expenses were approximately 6.02 million yen and medical expenses were approximately 1.63 million yen in FY 2019, but in FY 2021, they will be approximately 8.17 million yen (1.4 times higher) and 4.26 million yen (2.6 times higher), respectively, and are expected to increase further this year.

 

So far, we have raised money to maintain the shelter by asking for support and donations on SNS and at the transfer venue, and by selling handmade charity items at the transfer event.

 

In addition, we have been asking for individual support through SNS for cats that were injured in traffic accidents, etc. and need emergency shelter and medical treatment to cover the high cost of treatment. In addition, we have asked for payment of breeding fees for cats whose owners have requested shelter due to their circumstances.

 

However, we are just barely able to keep up with the ever-increasing medical expenses, and if this situation continues, we may not be able to continue our protection activities and the shelter will not be able to operate.

 

We have been trying to raise funds by ourselves as much as possible, but it is difficult to continuously cover the ever-increasing medical expenses. And unfortunately, in Japan, which is said to be a backward country in animal protection, public support systems from the national government and the government administration are hard to come by.

 

There is almost no public support system for animal protection in Japan, and most Japanese animal shelters are in the same situation.

 

Therefore, with your support through crowdfunding, we would like to continue to provide proper care for senior cats and sick or injured cats, and operate the shelter as a last resort to protect their lives.

 

Your support and awareness of our activities will help us sustain and develop our work. We want to increase the number of lives saved and protect the shelter as a place where any cat can spend a peaceful life without being threatened.

 

 

■ The Future of Nekohige House

We want to protect the lives of cats who have nowhere else to go, such as senior cats who are hesitant to be sheltered because of illness, or cats who cannot be taken in due to medical bills caused by injuries, and we want to respect the life of any cat that comes into our care.

 

Cats with infectious diseases such as feline AIDS or leukemia may be isolated in cages after being sheltered and forced to spend the rest of their lives in that space. At Nekohige House, we want to ensure that such cats have a place where they can live freely.

 

By creating a shelter that provides the same environment as healthy cats, we hope to eliminate even one cat that has nowhere else to go and provide them with the proper medical care they need.

 

 

 

■ Message from Ishikawa, Representative of the shelter