Welcome to our review of 2024, with me, Nick May, Director of NPO CATNIP.

2024 in numbers:

• › We rehomed 24 cats.
• › We worked with local people to TNR 32 cats at 9 main TNR sites.
• › The furthest site from our base was Genkai, in Saga, where we TNR'd 4 cats and Iizuka, where we TNR'd 2 cats and rescued 2 kittens.
• › We took in, or rescued 44 cats in total. Most of these were kittens or juveniles.
• › We rescued and treated 6 injured or sick street cats.
• › We rescued 2 adult street cats from areas that were unsafe.
• › Cats are being fostered as far away as Kitakyushu.
• › We rescued cats from as far away as Shimonoseki and Sasebo.
• › We rehomed cats to as far away as Kurume and Nagoya .
• › As the year starts, one cat is currently on a trial.

Two little cats, Chambord and Cointreau, rescued from a garden, wait for a new home...

See more about Cointreau-chan here and Chambord-chan here


Custard was a tiny kitten found hiding under someone's house. Here he is in his new home!


Pixel-chan was found on a busy street in Daimyo. Now she has a fine new home!


As 2025 starts...
CATNIP is responsible for 81 cats, including 2 sick TNR/Street cats who will be released as soon as they have recovered.

A quick word about what we mean by cats we are "responsible for". We do not have that number of cats on site.

Some cats

• ... are with our excellent foster families - who are often fostering more than one;
• ... are in long term placements but they are still legally the responsibility of CATNIP;
• ... are on home-stays - we are responsible for them until they are officially rehomed;
• ... are being TNR'd - female TNR and street cats are with us for a week or so usually;
• ... are street cats with us for a few weeks or months to recover from injury.

We track all these cats and people with bespoke shelter management software.

Our TNR year

A TNR cat waits to be released at our Tomooka Project.

We TNR'd 32 cats in total.

Cats have to be identified, trapped, held until the next vet appointment, taken to and from the vet, held until they have recovered (4 days for females, 1 day for male) then released back in their area. It takes a lot of time.

We worked with local people in projects in Hakata Station, Hanahata, Itoshima, Tomooka, Takamiya, Ijiri 2 chome, Ijiri 3 chome, Iizuka [all in and around Fukuoka] and Genkai Imamura Port [Saga prefecture].

Many of these cats were spayed or neutered with the help of a "ticket" from "Doubutsu Kikin".

You can see the cats we did at these projects by following the links here: TNR Projects

Our work doesn't stop when we have TNR'd all the cats in an area. It is very important to "maintain" the area over the following years. That means spaying any new females who appear, rescuing any stray kittens, and - when possible - treating any injured or sick street cats.

Ijiri 2 chome.
An example of this is Ijiri 2 chome TNR. This area has a small, but very active cat group. We spayed 20 plus cats in the area in 2022 and 2023.

Working with them in 2024, we rescued one socialised cat that was suddenly on the street, rescued, treated and released a cat with a badly broken jaw, treated another street cat that may have been abused, and neutered a couple of male cats.


This cat had an operation on her jaw. She was with us 6 weeks, then released.

Imamura Port
We have started to do TNR in the port of Imamura, in Genkai.


Genkai, Imamura.

When I first came to Japan, in 1992, cats in small fishing ports were often in very bad condition. I avoided going sightseeing in port areas as the condition of the cats was so distressing.

So now, in 2024, it is wonderful to be working in a port area with cats who people care for. So far we have done 3 females and 1 male. But there are 4 or 5 other female juvenile cats who are still slightly too young and too light to spay. (Our TNR vet requires cats to weigh 2kg before spaying.) These cats are on our list of targets for January 2025.

Iizuka
Another new site, in Iizuka started when a foreigner, Noelle Fuchs, contacted us to have two male cats spayed and vaccinated. She helped pay for that - and then we found a couple of kittens, whom we rescued. One kitten started a trial/homestay today, the 1st of January. Looking around the wider area, we find there are 6 or 7 un-spayed female cats and some sick looking kittens. Discussions with local people need to take place first, but we hope to be able to do these cats in February, funds permitting.


3 weeks ago, Bandit-chan was a shivering little ball of fur trying to stay warm in the cold. Now she is on a trial in a wonderful new home, wiht another cat.


TNR and vaccination
Vaccination extends the life, and the quality of life, of a street cat. It is very much worth doing. We cannot vaccinate every TNR cat that goes through our hands as it adds about 3200yen to the cost. However, we do it when we have funds available, or when someone is willing to sponsor the vaccination, as Noelle Fuchs was. We would like to do it more in future.


Vaccinated street cats have healthier, better lives.


Injured Street cats.
I am British, but I have lived in Fukuoka prefecture for more than 32 years. Since I came to Fukuoka in 1992 the lives of street cats here have improved tremendously. But there is one area where I think we need to improve it further...

I quite often get emails from foreign visitors to Japan who have seen an injured cat. CATNIP website is also in English, so they contact me. In their own country, such cats would be helped immediately. So they expect me to do something right away...


Over the past year we have taken in 3 cats who were injured. One case was at our Ijiri TNR site. The cat had a broken jaw and could not eat. The cat-feeder knew who to call - CATNIP. I had the cat at the vet within an hour. It had an operation. We vaccinated it. I took 6 weeks to recover - and then we released it. It is doing fine now.

The other two cases were - a bit odd. In both cases the cats were very badly injured. One cat had a large, festering wound on its side. Amfortas-kun. The other cat was missing a quarter of its face. Mii-chan. The photos of the wound on Mii-chan's face are too horrible to post.

This isn't a case of "nobody cared". In both cases, the cats had people who cared about them very deeply and wanted to help them. But those people didn't know who to call to get help...

And possibly, of course, they were worried about someone either asking for a very large amount of money, or just euthanising the cat without trying to treat it.

Amfortas-kun story.
It was a foreign visitor to Fukuoka - an American lady - who brought Amfortas-kun to our attention. The same foreign visitor also went to Cat Cafe in Daimyo called "Keurig" because they specialise in street cats. Nomura-san, from Cat Cafe Keurig was very helpful. It took a few days but together, the three of us managed to locate the cat and finally trap it.


Amfortas - trapping to take to the vet.

We told the vet to treat the cat if possible, but to euthanise it if necessary. The cat's injuries were treated, it was neutered and it had dental work as its mouth was not in good condition. Then we found it had Wet FIP. Feline Infectious Peritonitis. That is usually a death sentence for a cat. What we thought was a 5kg cat was a 3.5kg cat and a lot of water in the abdomen.

in 2023 it was possible to buy extremely expensive drugs for FIP from China via dodgy FaceBook groups. The drugs had to be given by injection. They were painful for the cat. They didn't always work. The drugs cost up to 1 million yen. We don't have that sort of money.

At that point Nomura-san, from Cat Cafe Keurig, came to the rescue. She sent us a new drug available from a Japanese language website that could be taken orally, and which was not expensive. Molnupiravir. We discussed the matter with the vet and did some research. We decided to try it. This was the first time we had treated a cat with this drug, so we gave the drug for 84 days. (We now think that 28 days is probably enough.)

And the cat recovered. Over the 84 days, he learned to tell his toilet and his bed apart, and became very tame. He was drinking quite a lot of water. Tests showed that his kidneys are not in great shape. He had been out of his area for 3 months - and his area was in the centre of the city. Not a good place for a cat. Other males would have taken his territory.

So he has stayed with us. He is a really nice boy. It would be wonderful if we could rehome him...

He is alive primarily because an American lady who came to Fukuoka from France for a conference saw him on the street, was shocked, and decided that something must be done.

(Thank you to Nomura-san for all her help with this cat.)

Mii-chan's story.
We got an email via the website from a Japanese man of about my age. A street cat had been in a fight, and over the following months most of the nose and upper mouth had rotted away. It wasn't his cat. It was an area cat. But he wanted to help it.

We saw the photos. Hideous. We explained that we did not know whether the cat could be saved. In such cases euthanasia is sometimes the kindest option. But we could try...

With the man's help we managed to get the cat to the vet within 36 hours. That was on the 2nd of October. Of course we left flyers in the area to say we had removed a cat, and gave contact details. Several people contacted us.

Very simply, part of the face was missing. The vet cleaned the cat's face up as best he could. The cat had multiple sutures. We waited to see if the flesh would grow....

3 months later, the cat is still with us. She has been back to the vet for antibiotics multiple times. She is 18 years old, we are told, and we think she would not survive an operation.

She was known to many people in her area. She still loves her food. She still loves to be petted. After discussions with the person who told us about her, and also the vet, we have decided to give her affection and attention while she still takes pleasure in life - and then give her a kind end when the time comes.

She has had a long and probably very interesting life. She 'purps' and rubs her head against me when I go into her room. We are in no great hurry.

CATNIP's Policy.
In these kind of cases CATNIP's policy is to say:


Who paid? In part, donations from the people involved. Sometimes the person who called us is struggling by on a small pension and does not have money to spare. People are sometimes very generous. It is a case by case thing.

We call these street cats "Prospero Fund" cats. Sometimes we raise money by having an online appeal, through the website and FaceBook, for our "Prospero Fund".

The Prospero Fund
I feel bad about raising money by showing photos of badly injured cats. I don't like to manipulate people's emotions. But sometimes we have to show people the cat's condition. So if we raise money for a "Prospero Fund" cat, we use anything left over only for other "Prospero Fund" cats. If someone donates money for an injured street cat after seeing a distressing photo, they know it will be spent ONLY on injured street cats.


Amfortas. How can a cat in this condition be left to walk the streets of a major city?


Amfortas. Fully recovered. Looking for a new home...

CATNIP's general approach is to get these cats to the vet for treatment, then later work out how to pay for them. Getting it to medical care is what we would do for an injured child, so that is what we do with a cat or a dog. (Yes, that can lead to a slight excess of "excitement" as we - assemble - money for the credit card bill each month...)

Rescues


Vet day after a kitten rescue...

We did several kitten and mother rescues this year. One was in Tenjin, from next to a convenience store - mother and 5 kittens. We were alerted to their situation by a Ukrainian couple.


One of 5 kittens rescued with their mother not far from City Hall.

See more about Crumpet-kun here

Another rescue was from a garden in Ijiri. But the one that sticks in my mind is a rescue we did in Sasebo...

Glissando-chan and 6 kittens


Glissando, mother of 6. She weighed 2.5kg.

See more about Glissando-chan here

It is a long story, and it is best we don't go into detail... Some foreigners were feeding a mother and her six kittens in the staff compound of a major entertainment complex in Sasebo. It became clear that "time was running out" for the cats and kittens - and indeed, very possibly, "time was running out" for the job prospects and visa of anyone who was caught feeding them...

Discreet inquires were made, and it also became clear that CATNIP would not be permitted access to the site ...

So in early August, we drove down to Sasebo from Itoshima, arriving at around 10pm. From 11pm or so we waited quietly in a car park while someone with access trapped the cats, one by one and exfiltrated them. It took 3 separate trips, over 4 nights, before the last one - a frightened little girl kitten - was caught. (We would get a call around midnight, be down there for 2am, then back home as dawn broke, to start work for the day.)

The cats are called after musical terms. Glissando-chan (mother), Presto-kun, Vivace-kun, Adagio-kun, Dolce-chan, Pizzicato-chan and Alto-chan.They are all very socialised, spayed, vaccinated and microchipped. They are looking for homes...


Adagio-kun. Sasebo Rescue.

See more about Adagio-kun here

Fairy-chan
Another rescue that sticks in my mind was of a cat in Totoro forest, here in Itoshima. The leader of a tour party of Ukrainians contacted me as they had found a cat in the forest that was clearly socialised and desperate. Next day I went down to try to trap the cat. A Taiwanese family brought her out of the forest. She had jumped into the man's arms for protection.


A very frightened, hungry little cat. She had jumped into the arms of a Taiwanese man, who had brought her out of the forest.

She was dumped, we think, but we treated her as a "lost cat" for 30 days, and made inquiries and reported her to the police and so on. We have just spayed her, and she is ready to go to a new home. She is a lovely, friendly little thing. Forest Fairy we call her.


Ready for a new home. She loves to cuddle!

See more about Forest Fairy here

Chappie and Musashi
Taking street cats off the street.

We took two street cats off the street this year. Musashi-kun was struggling at our Takamiya TNR site. He now lives with volunteer.

Chappie-kun was a street cat who lived in a narrow alley near the shotengai in Tenjin. The area was being redeveloped, and had become unsafe for him. His teeth were in bad condition. We managed to trap him. His teeth were fixed. He is slowly socialising. He is a bit of a handful... The person who was feeding him is kindly sponsoring him at CATNIP.


The Nishitetsu Grand end of the Shotengai, just before it was redeveloped.

Hakata Station cats.
In late 2023 and early 2024 we spayed a large number of cats from Hakata-station. We rescued a fair number of juveniles. Lots and lots of little black cats. You can see the details here, if you missed it. They are all now socialised and well, and looking for homes.


Midge-chan, rescued in late 2023 from Hakata Station area.

Finally - our thank-you's!
Thank you to the people at all the TNR Projects who work so hard and help to fund the TNR in their area.

Thank you to Ng Hui Lin, who is our online chaperone. When we are rescuing cats I am sometimes meeting a young woman for the first time in a remote location, in the early evening. To make her feel safer, we usually ask her to join a Line group, before we meet in person, with me and a chaperone. That means she knows she is in direct online contact with a female volunteer and we can all relax and focus on the needs of the cat.

Thank you to all the people who support our cats by "Online fostering" them.

Thank you to the people who have found abandoned kittens, and make donations to support them.

Thank you to all our members.

Thank you to our volunteer helpers.

And of course, thank you to the vet, who does so much for us....

Supporting us:
We survive only because of the support of the community in which we live.

As you will have noticed, we have had more cats in this year than we have rehomed. We think this is because the economy is bad. In a cost-of-living crisis, people are not getting a second cat.

Supporting a large number of cats makes our ongoing monthly costs that much higher.

Food costs at CATNIP are between 80,000 and 120,000 yen a month, depending on what special foods we require for sick cats. Toilet costs are another 20,000 yen or so. Veterinary fees run at between 150,000 and 200,000 yen a month, depending on how much TNR we are doing.

Fostering
We have got some great new fosterers this year, but are always looking for more. If you think you can foster for us and are not too far away, please have a look here, on our website, for details of what we can offer and how you can help.

Info about fostering.

2025 Appeal

We need to raise money to support our ongoing activities. Now isn't a great time for anyone, financially - but if you can spare us a few thousand yen, that would be helpful.

Prospero Fund: If you would like to have your donation go to treating injured street cats, then please tell us that it is for the "Prospero Fund"

Gulliver Fund: If you would like your donation to help pay for mother and kitten rescue, and rescues of cats like Forest Fairy, please tell us it is for the "Gulliver Fund".

TNR Fund: If you would like your donation to help pay for TNR, please tell us it is for the TNR fund.

Online Fostering: Pay 1000yen or 2000yen a month to support a specific cat. The money can be taken automatically from your credit card. More information here: Online Fostering

... and next
CATNIP is an NPO. Each donation and item of expenditure has to be accounted for. Each year we have to submit detailed financial accounts to our members, and then to the City. All that admin is done in January. What fun!

.... And on the afternoon of January 1st, 2025 we went to look for an injured kitten that someone had reported not far from Hakata station. By the end of the evening we had counted 6 older kittens, one of which is injured, and a mother cat. That brings our current TNR targets to 20, at 4 different sites.

If we do not spay them soon, they will all be producing kitten by April.

So - to work!

To support us by credit card go here.

BANK TRANSFER
Nishi Nippon City Bank / 西日本シティ銀行
Branch: 735 ( Ohashi Eki Mae Branch / 大橋駅前支店 )
Account: 3032620
Type: ordinary / 普通
Recipient: NPO法人　Companion Animal Trust, Nippon 　理事　メイ　アリスダー　ベンジャミン　ニコラス

BANK TO POSTAL ACCOUNT TRANSFER
branch name: nana yon hachi / 店名　七四八　
branch number: 748 / 店番　７４８
type: ordinary account: / 普通　Futsu
account number: 0258818 / 口座番号　0258818
account name: CATNIP / 口座名義　キャットニップ

POSTAL ACCOUNT TO POSTAL ACCOUNT
Number： 17430-2588181
Name:　キャットニップ (CATNIP)

Donating from outside Japan.

The best way to contribute is via credit card

Best wishes for 2025!

Nick May (Director).