2017-02-22 06:45 Cat Day
Y (Kuma's owner)
The 22nd of February is Cat Day in Japan. Every language has different expressions of animal sounds, for example in Japanese a cat's voice expressing "meow" is "nyan" or "nya." These sounds are similar to the pronunciation of "2 (ni)" in Japanese. You see, the 22nd of February has three 2s, "nyan nyan nyan" (meow meow meow) therefore Japanese cat lovers decided to call it Cat Day.
Cats are common animals in Japan and when I was small people kept cats freely, cats could go outside as they wanted. Nowadays people, especially those who live in big towns, keep cats inside of their houses. According to one of the surveys in 2014, 75% cats are indoor cats in Japan. Personally, my friends who have cats all keep their cats indoors.
I saw the website of many cat shelters when I was looking for a cat in Japan, and I noticed that all shelters required giving cats a vaccination and keeping them inside the house. If there's someone who cannot keep a cat inside the house, shelters don't give cats to them. Commonly, rented houses or apartments are not allowed to keep pets (except small animals and birds), therefore most cat shelters make sure that someone who wants to adopt a cat lives in a pet friendly house or owns a house. Some of the shelters are very careful and they visit the applicant's house to make sure.
I adopted a cat in Australia two years ago. I thought that the shelter was going to ask me if I was able to keep a cat inside of the house but they didn't. It was surprising because I heard that there are many indigenous animals in Australia that are facing danger by cats.
One of my Japanese friends loved cats very much. One day, I went to a mountainous area with her in Japan, which has a variety of birds. A souvenir shop displayed bird's postcards that would be a donation for a wild bird foundation. She said that it's very important to protect those wild birds and I agreed.
However, after that I heard that she was talking about her cat and said proudly "My cat is wild, he is good at catching birds."
What!? She did not notice that she contradicted herself.
I have heard that some people think that cats are mysterious animals, but to me human beings are more mysterious. People say something completely opposite on a different occasion.
Cats and other pets' lives depend on their owner. If they cannot find good people to live with, their life will be miserable. I hope that cats in shelters are able to find good people.
Happy Cat Day!