Neko Sanctuary

About cats, and persons who love cats.

Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Neko-Sanctuary Chronicle 9:Jiro, made the Sanctuary


Death of every cat or animal, even something equally tragic.
I do not remember only the death of Jiro and Kanpapa.
However, each time I go to the Neko-sanctuary and feed cats, I pass the street where Kanpapa committed suicide, and by a thicket of shrubs where Jiro spent his last  two days after the death. While not always I remember their death each time, but I recall once, I have a solemn feeling in the case of Jiro, and my chest aches badly in the case of Kanpapa.

Other than to these two cats, in a fine and mature male cats, and that they died about the same time, there weren’t so much in common.
Jiro was one of a leader in the large Neko-sanctuary, and Kanpapa was a temporary visitor who had come for the lunch occasionally.
Kanpapa, like a visitor  who came every once in a while, ate food so as not to attract attention, and two cats didn’t fight it.

First, I would like to write about Jiro.

Jiro was one of the leaders of the large Neko-sanctuary, already castrated, big male tabby cat.
There was white fur on the part of the chest.
He  had a cold all the time in his later years.
He was a close friend of Anna and Utamaro.

Shiro and Umetaro made ​​me touch their body, but Jiro didn’t.
But he came to me by himself.
After the feeding time, he sat on my lap with Black-Grandpa, and relaxed.
After Black-Grandpa gone, he sat on my lap for a while in the cold days of winter.
Sometimes I left my red nylon jacket on the bench for him.
He seemed to have been sitting there for a while.

This red nylon jacket, was his favorite thing, in the year of persecution when cat houses were moved or destroyed, I put it spread secretly in the bush. It was this jacket I wrapped corpse of Jiro.

It was in December 2006 the first year of persecution when Jiro was dead.
He had gotten weak, his fur got them from the beginning of this year.
I heard from M san that he climbed  the low brick wall that surrounds the bicycle parking lot to get to feeding spot at the his last day.

He spent his last night in the cat house we installed in the secret place, and died.
M san and I got out his body of the house, wrapped and placed in a thicket of shrubs of the Cat-sanctuary.

I think Jiro exhausted all of the functions of the internal organs, lived well until it stopped.

On that weekend, going to feed the cats, I passed by the side of where Jiro was sleeping, I saw the red jacket, and I thought that Jiro was still there.
The place became a sacred for me.
The Neko-sanctuary has become a really Sanctuary by Jiro.


Saturday, May 24, 2014

The Neko-Sanctuary Chronicle 8:Umetaro


I have to write about Umetaro.

Umetaro was a member of the Neko-sanctuary from the beginning,and one of the leaders of the large Neko-sanctuary.
He was a male black-and-white, slender cat, so I thought he was a female cat for for quite some time until M-san taught me.
I think that he was younger than Giraud and Shiro.

Umetaro was a clever cat. When I went there to feed them, he was the first cat that found me and running crying.
At one time or another, after the typhoon, he was taking a nap under the bike, on the dry concrete.

In January 2006, it was severe persecution, he took scabies, to bother with it, moved to the small Neko-sanctuary.
I was very worried about him, so even weekday I went to feed them at the night after work.
As M-san gave him the medicine of scabies, Umetaro recovered, and went back to the big Neko-sanctuary.

But in May, he disappeared again.

Long after that time, I heard that he was in a nearby parking lot with Shiro.
I went to there, but no cat was anymore.

Umetaro was doing along well with other cats, but there was no cat specially close him.
Prior to castration, he might have been coupled with Yuki.
Koyuki might have been their daughter.

Eight years have passed. I remember that I thought how lonely I would be if he was gone.
Umetaro has disappeared once and for all. I know I never see him again.


Saturday, May 17, 2014

The Neko-Sanctuary Chronicle 7:Utamaro


Utamaro is a black tabby male cat, having a big decent face, which reminded me a great Kabuki actor.

There were thick black stripes around the eye, and it made him a really strong fighting cat, but actually  he was quiet or timid. When I fed the cats, he always sat behind Jiro.

It was the fall in 2004 that he appeared in the  large Neko-sanctuary, and  in 2005 he had a bravado surgery together other male cat, such as Daikokumaru, Claude, and Socks.

Utamaro was in the Neko-sanctuary, until around March of 2006 from the end of 2005 that began the persecution, but after that, I had never seen him.

One of our cats, Fujio, that came in the fall of 2006 to us, really looks like Utamaro. His fur pattern, physique and character.
As Fujio was about three months old when he came, Fujio would not be the same cat as Utamaro, but I think they might be relatives.

Sunday, May 04, 2014

The Neko-Sanctuary Chronicle 6:Stella and Shiro


According to M-san, Stella, a female cat lived in the small Neko-sanctuary-around the back gate of the elementary school-, and Shiro, one of the leaders of the large Neko-sanctuary around the bicycle parking lot  were a couple until sterilization.
One of their kitten was adopted by M-san.

Stella was a very pretty cat, light brown fur on a white background.
She comes to eat, but did not come closer to me.
At the end of the year 2005 when the persecution began, she showed up yet, but in January 2006, she was gone.

Shiro was a big white and friendly cat, did not offend people who came to see the cats and even hugging. He had been having a chronic disease in the mouth, so M-san had him take a weak antibiotic every day.

The persecution starts, the hatred of the people who dislike cats were drifting in or around the bicycle parking lot, the cats no longer had showed up the daylight hours.
And Shiro disappeared in February 2006.
Someone saw him in the car parking lot a little far from the Neko-sanctuary, I heard it later much. Because no longer he got the medicine, his disease would be worse, and died.