Are dogs more humane than us?

In the news recently there have been stories about parents killing their own children, an American woman who let her ten-year old son get a tattoo, a nurse in Japan who enjoyed torturing her patients, a ship’s captain in Italy who abandoned the ship he crashed while his passengers were stranded on board to die, and other terrible stories about people mistreating other people who they were supposed to help and protect.

Of course, there are stories about people who act honorably too. The Italian Coast Guard officer who berated the aforementioned captain is one recent example.

But there were another two stories in the news recently too.
A dog in Australia and another one in Korea risked their own lives to save their respective families.

In Australia, a family with two daughters aged two and seven had a pet dog that loved the children.
One day last week, the two girls were in their backyard with the dog playing…but there was a very deadly Brown Snake there too!

The highly venomous Australian Brown Snake

The girls didn’t notice the snake, but the snake noticed them and it wasn’t pleased by their presence.
Just as the snake coiled to attack the girls, the dog saw the snake and didn’t hesitate to protect the girls.
The dog jumped on the snake and killed it…but not before the snake bit the dog.
The dog was rushed to the veterinarian to receive anti-venom treatment and is expected to recover…and will be get a “hero’s welcome” when he returns to his home.

The puppy in Korea was hiking with his elderly owner in the cold Korean winter last week when the old man slipped and fell.
He was knocked unconscious and would have frozen to death by the time his family found him…by his dog laid on top of him and keep him alive with his own body heat.
The young dog nearly froze to death himself to save his owner.

These dogs acted more humanly than some humans do.

ネコよけ

I’ve gotten emails from a visitors to my site a few times asking about the meaning of the PET bottles (plastic bottles) that can be seen outside some homes around Japan.

These "PET bottles" filled with water can sometimes be seen outside some homes in Japan...I see them less often now than I did when I first came to Japan, though.

So, I decided that since I’ve been asked about them more than once, I’d write a blog post and try to explain it. (By the way, feel free to contact me anytime with any questions you may have about Japan…and of course, comments on any blog post are always welcome!)

What do you imagine the meaning of these bottles is?

Well, they’re meant to be a type of 「ネコ避け」 (“cat deterrent”).

People want cats (and dogs) to stay off of their property so a numbers of years ago, a TV show here in Japan told viewers that sunlight reflects from water and scares cats away. So, the show said, people should put out plastic bottles of water for that purpose.
Overnight bottles of water could be seen outside many homes!

Nowadays, though, fewer people do this anymore because they’ve realized that it doesn’t actually work.

This cat could care less about those bottles...if he even noticed them at all!

As with any fad, manufacturers decided to try and cash in on people’s desire for an effective 「ネコ避け」 (cat deterrent) and they began to sell plastic mats with spikes that aren’t hard enough to actually harm an animal (or child) but aren’t pleasant to step on.

Close-up view of the plastic mat. The spikes don't harm anyone (or anything) that steps on them...but cats (and crows) don't like them.

My neighbor has some of these mats around their garden…and I’ve seen a cat walk on them, carefully stepping between the spikes! So, it seems, these mats don’t really work either.

(All images in this post were found on Google Images).

Pet contest

I like animals a lot (but not as much the the famous animal expert “Mutsugorou-sensei” 😉 ).
We have a cute pet turtle and we’ve had a cat, rabbit and a bird in the past…and every summer we have a few カブト虫 (Japanese Rhino Beetles).

We also like to visit the many zoos in the Tokyo area and also look at the cute animals in pet shops.

I found on the Yahoo! Japan the 「Yahoo!ペット・コンテスト」 (“Yahoo! Japan Pet Contest”).

On this site people can upload cute photos of their pet and visitors to the site vote on the best ones.

Currently this cat is in first place on the Yahoo Japan Pet Contest.

This one's in Second Place now.

Third Place.

Of course, not all of the pets are cats. There are also cute photos of people’s dogs, hamsters and rabbits. I even saw a pig and a ハリネズミ (hedgehog) while I was browsing through the photos.

Here are few more pictures that I liked:

 

Do you like animals too? Do you have a pet?

If you want to look at the 「Yahoo!ペット・コンテスト」 (“Yahoo! Japan Pet Contest”) then click here.

News in Japan

Four news stories that I saw on the TV news today:

①　The Space Shuttle Discovery launched today for a 13-day mission. On board is the first astronaut that is also a Japanese mother…39 year old Naoko Yamazaki.

Naoko Yamazaki

She began her astronaut training in Japan ten years ago, but had to relocate to America in 2004 to continue her training. Her husband gave up his career in Japan when they moved to America so he could stay at home and raise their daughter.

②　Yesterday afternoon in Saga, Japan, a group of young children were playing near a concrete barrier at the ocean’s edge, when suddenly a four-year old boy fell into the water.
Without hesitation, his ten-year old older brother jumped into the water to save him.
Both boys were unconscious when they were pulled from the water by rescue workers.
The younger boy recovered but his older brother who tried to save him died at the hospital.

③　In Chiba, Japan yesterday, some cruel person removed the antlers of an eight year old goat at a farm.
The goat was found bleeding profusely from his head wounds and was shaking violently.
The farmer took him to a veterinarian who bandaged the animal’s head. But the poor goat is still shaking and is now terrified of people.

④　But some people can be nice to animals.
A sixteen-year old high school girl in Yamaguchi, Japan found a dog that had been hit by a car and left bleeding in the street.
She took the dog to an animal shelter. The doctors at the shelter helped the dog, but they told the girl that if the dog’s owner doesn’t claim it within two weeks, it would have to be put to sleep.

The girl had her friends help her make fliers to find the dog’s owner and she sent photos of the dog to everyone she knew via email and had them forward the email because she didn’t want to see the dog she just helped save be put to death.

Her hard work paid off. The owner of the dog saw one of her fliers and recognized her dog, “Ai-chan”. The owner said she had been searching frantically since her dog went missing.

The dog was rescued by her owner just in time. She was collected from the shelter on March 13…one day before she was scheduled to be put to sleep.

The girl (second from left) that found the dog and her friends showing the fliers they made.

盲導犬

Today I saw a blind woman at a train station with a 盲導犬 (seeing eye dog).
He led her safely through the crowded station and wasn’t startled when the train came rushing into the station near him. He led her into the train and to an empty seat and then he laid down and slid below the train seat out of the way.

I think 盲導犬 (seeing eye dogs) are amazing! They seem to understand how important their job is and they take it very seriously.

It reminds me of one of my favorite movies. It’s called　「盲導犬クイールの一生」 (“Quill”).

The movie 「盲導犬クイールの一生」 (“Quill”) is a true story about the life of a Labrador named “Quill” (because of a black marking on his fur that resembles a feather) who becomes a seeing-eye-dog and the people whose lives he touches.

The movie’s a tear-jerker.

I’ve only seen the movie in 日本語 (Japanese), so I’m not sure whether there are versions of it in other languages or not.
But, if you have the chance to see the movie, I recommend it.