I started to make an article about some of the interesting pets I’ve met on my travels, but there were too many of them. I guess that means I now have another regular segment…
A shy Ai-chan when I first arrived.
In 2006, I watched the New Year arrive the Japanese way: with family. A cousin of mine was living in Tokyo at the time, and invited me to spend the holiday with him and the family of his now-wife, Kyoko, in Nagoya.
Ai-chan was blind when she was taken in off the streets by Kyoko’s mother. She lived with two other kitties, an old grouch called Bebe who looked and sounded a bit like a tawny frogmouth, and Bonnie, a hyperactive kitty with a pathological grudge against cushions. Despite her visual impairment she was playful and loving, wrestling with yarn and cat toys like any other cat:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kav-p/348623124/in/album-72157603516692894/
Ai-chan plays with a toy while Bonnie watches with envious eyes.
Ai-chan was sweet-natured and loving (hence her name, I suppose!). She wasn’t allowed outside the house for fear that she’d lose her way, but she didn’t seem to care much for the outside world anyway. She seemed content to spend her days cuddling up with anyone who’d let her, when she wasn’t cosied down under the kotatsu (Japanese heated table and kitty’s delight).
It was in Nagoya that year that I learned about the huge stray cat problem in Japan. Every year, kittens who have outgrown their welcome are dumped, often un-neutered/spayed, in parks, shrines and temples, where there are plenty of other strays to play with or tear apart, depending on their disposition. Bites and scratches can lead to the transmission of FIV (the feline equivalent of HIV), an especially virulent disease in Japan due to the dumping of so many strays in the same areas.
Ai-chan, arguably more vulnerable due to her condition, was saved from this fate by a loving family. Whether she was aware of this, I will never know, but whatever the case, the affection she showed us all was palpable. I have met many ex-strays since my New Year in Nagoya, but it was there and through Ai-chan’s story that I was made aware of animal rights issues specific to Japan, and for that I will always be grateful.
Bebe is watching you where Ai-chan cannot…