house and garden | garden cats







		First Cat: Dosu-chan Please click ‘Summer 2003’ below to learn about him.

		Second Cat: Shiro-chan Of course it relates to her food, but: more than one year after we first started to feed her, she suddenly started to talk to us. She is now more talkative than Kyoku. However, if we come to within fifty centimetres of her, she hisses at us. She is strict with us as usual. (We hope she will soon get to be a little more tame.) We don’t know why, but when Shiro-chan eats her meal, Kyoku chases her or stares at her. We never understand what cats are thinking… Recently we noticed that our neighbours also call her Shiro.

		Third Cat: Kyoku-chan Kyoku still doesn’t get along with Poosuke-san (the dog). Just before the summer (we didn’t notice when) the family of Apli-kun (also a dog) moved out. Kyoku had started to be good friends with a cat named Arashi-kun, who looked like Kyoku, and who lived at Apli-kun’s house… Even though Kyoku doesn’t get along with eighteen-year-old Poosuke-san, his garden is one of Kyoku’s favourite places these days. It seems he stays there (sleeping) at least three hours every day. Poosuke-san’s sister Ms. H (a human) says Kyoku was munching on the passionflower she’s raising in the garden. This despite the fact that he won’t eat the cat grass we grew at home to help him with his hairballs.


		Fourth Cat: Boss Hana The truth finally came out after our last recycling day, when Chris had a chat with the lady who usually looks after Hana. We finally know Hana’s real name: ‘Ryo’. That’s a good name for the neighbourhood boss. And he plays the baby for our neighbour — she’s the only one who can pick him up! By the way, they call Kyoku ‘Midori’ (‘Green’) at Hana’s house. Kyoku is the only cat with a collar around here, and it’s green. Even though ‘Midori’ gets enough to eat here at his own house, he sneaks into Ryo’s house when the boss isn’t at home. He eats dried bonito flakes and relaxes in their comfortable air-conditioned room. Always has an eye for the main chance: that’s our Kyoku…

		Fifth Cat: Maru He is also one of the cats who gets food at Hana’s house, but he is much closer to being a stray. He sometimes steals Shiro’s food. We often hear male cats fighting in the midddle of the night. We guess it’s the power struggle between Maru and Hana. Maru got a bad injury on his face, and it got to be quite swollen. We hope it gets better soon… He is probably younger than Hana. He looks like Kyoku, but rounder and darker. We wonder if they came from the same litter. I thought he was called ‘Maru’ (‘Circle’) because of his chubby body, but Chris says his ‘Maru’ is from the name of ‘Musashimaru’, the former grand champion sumo wrestler. We don’t yet know what his name is at Hana’s house.

		–YS, Summer 2004







	Date posted: 2004-08-14

First Cat: Dosu-chan

Second Cat: Shiro-chan

Third Cat: Kyoku-chan

Fourth Cat: Boss Hana

Fifth Cat: Maru