Katriona's Diary

Sunday. No sunshine. A humid cloudy day. Without sunshine the temperature was not very high. It’s better, easier to do the things than in the days with strong sunshine. In the morning p, when I opened the shutter facing the wooden verandah, I found them relaxing… XD In the afternoon I went to the nearby supermarket to get some groceries, then changed the clothes and went out into the garden to weed for the first time during these some weeks. With the terrible summer heat I could not weed the garden so the weed were growing :( I weed the area around the graves of my rabbits, this task reminded me of those lovely ones… Now most of the white lilies are gone but we have still some flowers, we enjoy to put them in flower vase. Simple but beautiful summer flower arrangement :)

Today it’s mostly cloudy with a little sunshine just sometimes and occasional shower. It’s humid but the temperature was not very high, so I decided to postpone my weekly house cleaning, went out to the garden. Because of the merciless summer heat then a rainy week we could not weed our garden at all for about a month, now the garden is… a kind of mess!! I chose the west end of the garden which is facing the narrow road, got rid of weed and trimmed the overgrown bush. It’s a big job! Then I weed the garden - around my rabbits’ graves. We have buried 5 rabbits there - Mikebo, Mr.Uma, Utako and my sister’s rabbits Tsuku and Noa. There is no tombstone for them but I remember well where we have buried each of them. I found some edible grasses (for rabbit!) there and picked them for Krurun.



I have worked in the garden for 5 or 6 hours and now in the evening I’m tired, but this physical tiredness is not bad. Tomorrow I’ll have to clean my room… X)

Yesterday it's raining in the morning then cloudy, a cold gloomy day. I heard some cruel news from a friend and have felt blue all day, could not drive off the sad image from my mind. There are too many cruel things everywhere in this world, and in my office I face countless unreasonable things everyday. If it's just unreasonable and stupid things, we may laugh at them and forget them for a while, but the cruelness...  The knowledge that there are people or animals suffering in the terrible situation and the anger at who caused the situation haunt us always. Of course we should not think about them too seriously, we should focus on our own life and enjoy it first, then worry about others. Though in my case the suffering "others" are the animals - small rabbits which can do nothing to change the situation by themselves, I can't help but feel a kind of irritation or fretfulness about the fact I can do quite little to help them. I've felt quite uneasy all day.
This morning we had nice sunshine after some gloomy days, it made me feel much better. I still worry about the rabbits - I did some donation to the volunteers (but the problmes is there are not enough volunteers at all in this case nor donated money etc) and I don't think I can do more. It's a pity.
My rabbit Tako was a rescued rabbit, her predecessor Mr.Uma, and his Mikebo were too. I have taken good care of them, made their life happy (so I believe). But volunteer in more activity to save the animals is beyond my capacity like the more serious and bigger social problems are.
To ignore the cruelness in the world may be coward, but...  :(

This morning. I gave Mr.Uma some green vegetables as usual, and saw him eating them one after another eagerly. His fur colour is half white, and the lower half of his body is brown - looks like wearing overalls. I remember Mikebo, the lovely rabbit who had lived with me before Mr.Uma came here, who was generally grey with white feet like wearing white socks. I thought... Mr.Uma will also leave someday, and I know this quite usual moment of seeing him eating his breakfast is precious. And I feel thankful for this happy moment.

There are two rooms in my small house. I spend most of my free time in Japanese Tatami room with my desk and personal computer, and my rabbit Mr.Uma lives in the carpeted room with his cage and table under which he likes to be relax X)
Whenever I'm at home I keep the door of Mr.Uma's cage open so he can go out & back into it anytime.

Last night I went into the carpeted room and could not help laughing when I found this old cushion.




Mr.Uma was lying under the table innocently as if he knew nothing about these stains but I knew he loves to lick it sometimes though I have no idea why. This cushion should have been thrown away long ago but Mr.Uma, and also his predecessor rabbit Mikebo like licking it so I have kept it in my room.

So what do you want to say with doing this???


(A photo I took on the other day)

After the wet, gloomy weekend, today, Tuesday is a national holiday and we have mild sunshine and moderate temperature. In our garden narcissuses are in their last bloom, I can smell their fresh scent. On the grave of my late rabbit Mikebo there are many small wild flowers.



When I'm home I keep the door of the cage of Mr.Uma open so he can go outside into my room anytime but today he seems to be really content being inside, enjoy eating the grass I picked from our garden sometimes.



And I spend doing nothing special, just e-mailing or writing to my friends or tidying the travel photos.
Mild, quiet day... and on such day I feel the happiness, really.

Today I have spent hours on sorting and checking the photo data of my late rabbit Mikebo on my computer. Those photos, especially the old ones made me remember the early days of her life with me here. She has been a rescued rabbit, once lived with other deserted rabbits on some riverbank in Tokyo but rapidly become a pet animal, always seemed contented with her life here.
I have, too, enjoyed the life with her very much for almost 6 years so I'm sure without Mikebo, Mr.Uma has never come to my house... :)


(Mikebo in Aug.2007)

Yesterday(Saturday), and today(Sunday), I cleaned up my room, tidied some stuff and readied a cage - my late rabbit Mikebo's cage - for a new rabbit. The volunteer who has rescued small animals from the "must evacuate" area near the nuclear power plant in Fukushima is going to take one of their rabbits to my place tonight.

Frankly I'm still somewhat hesitating about having a new pet, feel a bit sorry for Mikebo. I know we can love any animals if we take care of them sincerely, and the rabbit needs a new home & owner after the rescue from his former home. So I'll try to do my best though I know well he could never be the replacement of Mikebo, should never be...

The rabbit's name is Uma because he's come from Minami-Souma City, Fukushima prefecture.

My sister & her family decided to have a rabbit, she said today they adopted the rabbit into their house from the volunteer group. It's a baby of the rescued rabbit from the "evacuation" area around the Fukushima nuclear plant.
As a former rabbit owner I heartily hope they would take care of it enough, and also, it's a relief to know those rescued rabbits could find the new home...

And as for me, I'm now asking about another rescued rabbit. I was not thinking of having a new rabbit so soon after the death of my beloved rabbit Mikebo, not at all, I thought maybe after 6 months or one year I would think about the new pet. But when I learned that many volunteer people are trying to find the new families for the dogs, cats, and rabbits they rescued from Fukushima, their former owners are forced to abandon their houses & evacuate from their own towns because of the Nuke crisis, ...now my feeling is changing. I still hesitate about the new rabbit, but if I have one then they'd be able to rescue ... save another small life. At present I'm not sure... but... well...



(my sister's family's new rabbit)

Today I wrote about my rabbit Mikebo's death(in may) on my Japanese web journal. I have not wanted to talk about it in my native language for a while so waited about a month to announce it to my local friends. And writing about it of course made me remember Mikebo, miss her again, feel thankfully not a piercing pain I once had but quiet & deep sorrow. Luckily I have no regret about what I've done for her so at least I can remember her peacefully.


But if the death of someone we love is a tragic one, the memory might be very painful. I know I should not compare my rabbit's death with human's but I cannot help thinking of it...

Today, 6/18, is the 100th day after the disaster of 3/11. In many places in the devastated area in Tohoku people have memorial services today. It is raining now. The sad, gloomy, mourning day...