2018-04-04 23:12 Living with cats - Each day comes with surprises
Y
Do you have pets? I have two cats, one which I brought from Japan and the other which was adopted from the local animal shelter. Both cats are adults, but they are still playful and active.
Mittan is a female cat. She was a stray cat and I don't know her age. A vet estimated her age and it seems she is around 11 years old.
Midon is a male cat. I don't know when he was born. I think he was also a stray cat.
Mittan is very skillful at opening sliding doors. My house has several sliding doors and as a matter of course, I want to keep them closed. However, for cats, the back space of the doors are unknown and mysterious areas, so they want to go in. They are very curious and are always looking for an opportunity to get in. They seem to know that I don't like them to get inside of the sliding doors. So, what Mittan does is open the sliding doors at midnight.
One night, I got woken up by a strange noise. It sounded like something was being dragged. It started for two or three seconds and stopped, then it started again. My heart started beating because I thought it might be a thief. I opened my eyes a little and looked at the direction of that strange noise. It was midnight and dark, but I could see the sliding door was moving little by little along with a strange noise, but I couldn't see anything. The next moment, I heard something bumping into the door and the door shook a little. I got up slowly and looked at the door. What I saw was Mittan sitting inside of the sliding door!
Since then, she has been trying to open every sliding door in the house. She seemed to enjoy it. Midon cannot open the sliding doors but he learnt that Mittan can open them, so he follows her when he wants to get inside of the door.
I always close the sliding doors and as soon I close them, Mittan opens them at midnight. We repeat this every day. I once used a prop for locking the door, but she scratched the door, so I stopped using it.
It's not only Mittan that surprises me. Midon is very active early in the morning. The day before yesterday, I was woken up by my head and pillow shaking. I was surprised and got up and saw Midon was holding my pillow with his forefeet and kicking it by his rear feet. There are toys made for cats for kicking, and I knew they are sold at pet shops. But why did he use my pillow and why it had to be so early in the morning? I know it's a useless question for cats.
Living with cats comes with each day filled with surprises, fun and a bit of annoyance.
2018-01-20 00:04 My memories of Moko
Y
Yesterday was a very sad day. One of my cats, Moko, died. His age was 15 years old. I had been living with Moko for about 13 years. 13 years ...they were long and happy days.
The first opportunity to see him was on a website for finding foster parents for cats and dogs. I contacted the animal welfare group who had kept Moko and let them know my blog that was mostly written about my cats. Usually, animal welfare groups make sure where an applicant lives because some rented houses don't allow keeping pets, and most groups visit the applicant's house to make sure. They saw my blog and gave me a permission to have Moko.
I talked with a woman who had been keeping Moko. She said that Moko was found on a roadside by a woman who didn't have her own child. She took him to her home and grew him, but she abandoned him after her baby was born and he was taken to the animal welfare. However, same as the other animal welfare groups, the group that accepted Moko had so many cats and dogs. They tried to keep their cats and dogs as much as they could, but it was getting impossible. Therefore, the cats and dogs that had been living there for a long time were chosen and taken to the vet for euthanasia. One day, Moko was chosen. He was taken to the vet, but the vet looked at him and said he had a policy that he will not kill cats and dogs that are young and healthy, and he refused euthanasia. Moko's life was saved. However, the woman who had been keeping Moko had no idea what to do next. She asked her friend and was recommended to upload his photo to one of the famous websites, and then I saw that photo. The woman of the animal welfare group was so glad to know that I applied.
I met her and Moko at Shinjuku Station, one of the busiest stations in Japan. I think Moko was very scared. Then my husband and I took him home, it was spring of 2005.
I named him Moko because he had a gorgeous coat. Moko moko means fluffy in Japanese.
At the time Moko came to our house, we already had two cats, Kuma and Kemeko. At first, Moko was scared but he got used to the other two cats, and especially he liked the older male cat, Kuma. Moko always followed Kuma like a kitten follows its mum. Moko was a big boy and looking at the two cats he was walking along with, I thought Moko looked like a bodyguard of Kuma. However, actually he was a little timid and his personality was far from a bodyguard's one.
Moko was a big cat, so he was strong, and we sometimes had trouble with keeping him steady at the vet when he took a vaccine. The vet said that he might have Maine Coon's DNA because he was quite big. He was very sporty and could jump high. I remember that well, but it feels like a long time ago.
For the past two years, he had been losing his muscles and getting weak. We took him to the specialist, but they couldn't find the reason. Last month, I knew that he would not be able to survive long, so I gave him anything that he wanted to eat. His last was peaceful.
Thank you, Moko. I really think the days that I spent with you were wonderful.
2017-08-04 09:19 A cat in a jumper
Y (Kuma's owner)
This winter isn't so cold and I don't have much chance to use the wood-burning stove, however one of my cats, Moko-Nyan, is getting old and seems to not tolerate cold weather. I think Moko-Nyan is about 14 years and 6 months old.
He had a beautiful coat when he was young and looked like a pure blood Maine Coon cat. Now, his coat looks thin and looks so cold and I decided to buy a jumper for him. I don't like to dress a cat but I thought that if he was able to be warm wearing a jumper, it must be good.
Long ago, I bought a harness for one of my cats. He got cancer and he loved to walk around the house. He needed to take medication and I didn't want him to go outside alone. Therefore, I bought a harness and put it on him and walked him every day. One day, I put the harness on Moko-Nyan and knew that he didn't care for it at all. So, I thought that he wouldn't care for a jumper as well.
I was not going to dress him in a jumper if he didn't like it, and the result was my expectation was correct. He doesn't care for the jumper at all. I don't know if the jumper has an effect or has no effect. I hope that at least it makes him a little warmer.
The season that he doesn't need a jumper is coming soon.
