Operator and Cat

I had originally planned to do some experiments to squeeze out some data for my presentation on Wednesday, but nothing went as planned today. I was the first one in the lab to arrive in school at 900am. As I was walking up stairs to get the keys to the experiment room, I saw two ladies standing beside Waki-sensei's room. I didn't think too much of it since people from company come to visit her all the time. Later on Waki-sensei called in to tell us that it was the new experiment operator she had hired. They had been waiting for a good 20 minutes already.

So it turned out, she was to start work today, but nothing was set up for her. Me and Sasaki-kun scrambled to clean the vacinity for her. I was responsible for setting up her computer and desk. By the time we finished, it was already 11:30am. The new operator seemed extremely quiet, always looking at other people with doubts in her eyes. She did not talk much at all and I fear it might be a while before we'll be able to converse with each other. The good thing is she cannot speak any English AT ALL, so I will be able to have a Japanese speaking partner. I so welcoome that. Me and Sasaki-kun went to feed the cats later on and found 20 PET bottles placed in the area where the cats hang out. I saw a person wearing school uniform walking by, taking glimpse at us and I thought he was the one who did it. So we squatted there , waiting for him to come back and give us an explanation.

He came out later on with a lot of his peers. He seemed to be the boss of the school operation workers. He said there are many problems with the feces of the cats near that building. As it happened before, the small kittens would still get into the building these days. For the whole time we squatted there. He further explained, "It's not that we hate cats, it's because we don't want to deal with the related problems with the cats around." He squatted down and talked for a bit more. We are to relocate the Sabi's family to a new location. Finally we've caught the culprit behind the PET bottles.

Sasaki-kun and I returned to the lab and explained the situation to Waki-sensei and later had a meeting with Namioka-sensei. The relocation started immediately. The kittens are not so dumb and they were able to move to the new spot for food right away. What worries us is the volume of cats that go on that road, Sabi and Chibi-kuro are smart enough to avoid the cars but I am not so sure about the kittens. Luckily these cat scare tactics were done by the workers independently, not by the school administration, which is kind of a relief.

I feel that I really need to get a move on the animal study circle (club) started and find all the help we can get to manage these animals.