Animal Shelter

After the earthquake in March 2011, many animals were abandoned.  Susan saw stray dogs and decided to take action.  She created and animal shelter for animal shelter for dogs in the surrounding region.  They now board 110 dogs and some cats.  Although the shelter is not listed, more dogs/cats are dropped off over night.  This is not good because Susan and her team do not know the background of these strays (sick, dangerous).  Susan's team is committed to walking all the dogs at least once a day.  Volunteers come (heard by word of mouth) to help.  When volunteers are scarce, Susan's team have had to walk until 8PM.  It's remarkable how much is sacrificed to help these stray animals.

Washing bowls and hands at the animal shelter

One of these adorable puppies was adopted and taken to Hiroshima the day we arrived.  The owner of the shelter visits every adopting family to insure that the dog's new life will be better than their current condition at the shelter.

There were 110 dogs at the animal shelter.  Each dog gets walked daily.  Some dogs can be walked with others, while some are "no touch" dogs.  This means that they can be walked, but you cannot touch/pet them.  One person we met at the Volunteer's Apartment was recovering from an attack from a "no touch" dog.  Most were dogs friendly, but I didn't chance petting them while unsupervised.

Walking these dogs through the Japanese countryside was a delight.  

 Volunteers at the animal shelter can stay at this apartment for free.  There were two volunteers already at the apartment when we arrived.  Volunteers can stay for any duration they choose.

We made curry and salad for dinner.  There was limited space we took advantage of the floor space.

Since we were sharing the apartment we all squished into one room and had a giant slumber party.  We played card cranium and told scary stories.  It was a great way to bond and make friends.

We had to head home a little early due to a typhoon warning.  We took two trains and a bus to get to the animal shelter and we didn't want to get stuck in Tokushima (sometimes the bridge closes). We took the longest suspension bridge (Awaji bridge) to get to Tokushima.  We also crossed over waters that had whirlpools! It was a beautiful commute and a wonderful weekend.