The Neko-Sanctuary Chronicle 20：Ki-Ichiro with golden fur

The first time I met the Ki-Ichiro, I wonder it was spring of 2004.

Until then, I had been feeding only the large Neko-sanctuary, the bicycle parking lot, but since my husband said that there were many cute cats around the gates of the elementary school, I went there.

Ki-Ichiro was a less than 1 year old male cat with stripes of beautiful bright yellow.

He wore earrings those were signs of castrated mark to ear.

He was living with Mari of foster parent, and they became a family since Tommy appeared in October.

Cosette appeared  in May 2005.  Was not any more Mali at that time. Cosette, I wonder, was not a family for Ki-Ichiro. I saw several times Kiichiro was chasing Cosette. Tommy was looking anxiously nearby. However, it was enough for Ki-Ichiro to chase sometimes.

Until March 2012, Kin-cha appeared, and Cosette was gone,somehow, the center of  the small Neko-sanctuary was Ki-Ichiro.

Since autumn and winter of 2007, I didn’t see Ki-Ichiro and Tommy no longer apparent at all, I was worried, but I was relieved to meet them in the front yard of gravel dreary two-story　apartment away tens of meters there.

Then again, until September 2013, everytime I  went to the small Neko-sanctuary, I met Ki-Ichiro almost always.

From around 2012, Ki-Ichiro’s fur began to thin. Dirty fur fell all, and became a fluffy soft fur, but seemed to be of no use in the winter. I thought he might not survive the winter of 2012, but he was also healthy in the spring of 2013, I was happy.

However, from September 2013, he disappeared and never came back.

Ki-Ichiro was an amiable cat to us human. Not even once that it was pained or ill, moody.

He liked to sit on my knee, particularly cold winter. In the last few years, he sat on my knee when the hot summer. His body temperature might have fallen.

Around the nine years, the small Neko-sanctuary had been brightly lit by Ki-Ichiro’s golden fur.