Requiem for a Fuzzy Critter

Six months before I arrived here in Japan my next-door neighbor found two kittens -newborns- under a tree in the park near our apartment. They had been abandoned to die by someone whom didn't want to have their cat spayed, but also didn't want kittens. Since they were way too young, their lives would have been extinguished if my neighbor hadn't found them and taken them to the local vet.

Japan is a harsh world for the domestic breeds of feline; Dogs are revered here but cats are kinda looked down upon. Though it seems that neither dogs nor cats are treated particularly well, the cats do seem to get the short end of the stick. There are no animal shelters here, strays are tolerated mostly because the roads are very narrow and treacherous and the high animal fatality rate on them does a good job of controlling the populations.

So, the vet took in the two little balls of fur and cared for them for three months, bottle-feeding them and nursing them back to health. They did this free of charge and out of the kindness of their own hearts.

These two kittens, both female, were given the names Genki-Chan (smaller, and much more energetic) and Kitty-Chan (Quieter, and brain damaged) by my neighbor when they were given back to him after their condition had stabilized.

When asked why he named the brain damaged one "Kitty-Chan", my neighbor would reply: "It seems that when a child is mentally retarded here, they seem to get locked in a "childhood cycle" by the adults, regardless of how old they are. Always being referred to by cute names... KittyChan will never make it to CatKun or CatSan, she will forever be known as "KittyChan" because of her condition." My neighbor is also a Junior High English teacher, and as an American, he is also getting some interesting insights into Japanese culture.

Genki-chan became an outdoor cat rather quickly, going outside for many days on end. We suspect that perhaps she had another house she visited on occasion. Certainly, she would paw at my window from time to time and I would let her in whereby she would promptly curl up in my bed and go to sleep. Over the last year, she returned less and less often.

KittyChan, however, was very much afraid of her own shadow. She would go outside, because her sister would, but, not being half as adventurous, she would come back as soon as she possibly could and retreat to the apartment.

KittyChan had balance issues and had difficulty jumping up onto things, so she didn't like being outside, which was full of tall things and loud cars and mean tomcats. So the neighbors had built a little house for her in their apartment (Which, like mine, was very small to begin with), and they let KittyChan have her own small world.

KittyChan also had sporadic heath issues. At one point I had to take my neighbor and a very unhappy KittyChan to the vet so that they could clear a urinary blockage. We took turns scratching KittyChans head so she would calm down, but she was a very unhappy kitty (She was also in a box... Which would definitely make anyone unhappy... But we don't have much in the way of cat carriers for her).

Our apartment complex doesn't allow for cats, and thus our neighbor lived in constant fear that somewhere along the line someone from our apartment complex would find out about KittyChan and GenkiChan and would fine them or demand they move out or something.

KittyChan visited my apartment rarely. She would very quickly discover that it kinda looked like home, but smelled different and things were moved about, she would ultimately freak out and I would have to take her next door. Her round form shivering, back to a place that made sense to her.

During summer break, my neighbors decided to take a trip about Japan. They left KittyChan in my care. I tried to bring her to my apartment, but she just stood on my bed -shivering- and cried. So, once or twice a day I'd go over to their apartment and scratch her head and talk to her and keep her company.

When Jessie came to stay with us, she helped take care of KittyChan with me and -after a fashion- KittyChan grew to think that maybe Jessie and I were not so scary after all.

For KittyChan, this was a major accomplishment.

GenkiChan, on the other hand, was turning into a regular cat; she was sweet and kind, showing up at my apartment every week or so to hang out with me and explore my strange place-which-looked-like-home-but-wasn't. Then she'd settle down and go to sleep on my bed. Sometimes, if I was napping, she'd curl up next to me and purr.

And still her sister followed her outside for a little while... Trying very hard to be normal like Genk... But in the end, she just couldn't take the outside world and she'd retreat to the neighbor's apartment.

When I'd go over to spend some time with my neighbors (They are from New Mexico, and they make an excellent burrito... Something that is sorely lacking here in Japan...) KittyChan would always be there, very confused that the number of people in the apartment was different than the last time she checked. But after a while, she would let me scratch her head, and somewhere along the line, she would even calm down. In the last few months, she even seemed to get the hang of jumping up and down off the bed (Our beds in this apartment complex are raised about 4 and a half feet off the ground with a very large storage space underneath). She still seemed to scramble for purchase, but at least it wasn't a crash landing any more.

Since I left Luna and Tsuki in Colorado with friends, I have really enjoyed having cats nearby. I miss my cats dearly, and KittyChan and GenkiChan are pretty close surrogates to Luna and Tsuki... Here we have a smart, sweet one and a mentally retarded adorable one. The parallels were stunning; KittyChan is markedly more brain-damaged than Tsuki (Tsuki doesn't have the motor-skill issues), but they both have that same, strange, lovable, wholly terrified personality. As if the parallels weren't scary enough KittyChan and GenkiChan are both black as well. Though KittyChan has the most remarkable fur; though black, it is white at the roots, which means she looks black until you rub her fur, when there are these amazing, and beautiful, bursts of white.

This morning, my neighbor found KittyChan's body under my windowsill, she had tried to jump down. She landed wrong, probably slipped on a rock and broke her neck. She died instantly.

Only a few feet from home... and safety.