The Goodbye Cat

by Hiro Arikawa

Kota was honing his skills at making paw prints, readying himself for when the time came.

Wonder if today’s the day he’ll stand up, thought Kota, fixing him with a good long stare. Nope, he’s still a caterpillar. Hurry up and learn to stand. If your mother abandons you, then what? Kota suddenly remembered that his mother had left him behind because he had been such a weak kitten with extremely wobbly hind legs.

‘Morning!’ Hiromi greeted his mum, who immediately shot back with, ‘Took your time getting up, that’s for sure.’ Hiromi shrugged. Being a college student seemed a pretty leisurely occupation.

There had to be documents, Diana said, suddenly brimming with confidence and twitching her ears excitedly. When Masahiro and Hiromi’s names were given to the city hall, their parents had filled in these documents. Then they had stamped them with their hanko seals. What should we do? We can’t write, said Kota. But even cats can stamp a seal, can’t they? Diana replied. Okay, but where do cats get seals? This question stumped them for the longest time. They didn’t find a seal in time for Diana.

I hope you can become a nekomata, Kota.

But Kota’s document never arrived. After all that practice stamping my print.

I only wish I could have outlived Hiromi – even by a single day. But Hiromi’s all grown up now. Big and strong, the tallest one in the family. So tall, I can’t climb up him any more. So he’ll be fine. With that healthy body, he can surely handle any amount of sorrow.

‘Even if I were reborn, I’d want to be your child. And be named Hiromi and bring Kota up all over again.’ ‘You’re leaving out Masahiro,’ his mum teased. ‘If he asks me, I’ll let him be my older brother.’ And if Hiromi asked his older brother, he would surely let him be his younger brother. ‘So name him Masahiro again, and name me Hiromi.’

He was the type who, when he found something interesting, would obsess about it for a while, but the obsession never lasted. He was good at discovering little hobbies for himself like that.

He was, when all was said and done, a good father. Troubled, troublesome, yet utterly adored by a lone cat who could love no one else.

In the past we’d visited Nara, famous for its deer, and when he rushed at one, crying out It’s Bambi!, an angry parent deer had bulldozed him aside.

‘Since it’s part of nature, isn’t it better not to rescue it?’ The old woman’s words had stayed with me. The weak get hunted down. That’s the way it is … If the weak don’t die, things will come to a dead end. ‘I suppose so,’ Haruko said with a smile. ‘But us being here is also a natural part of things.’

‘If you do something for other people, it’ll be good for you too.’

Which was true, but not the whole story. Not by a long shot. This is how adults smooth over certain topics, I realized.

‘Hachi! Your name is now Hachi! Speak to me, Hachi!’ When the kitten gave a little meow! Satoru’s face lit up, his cheeks shining. ‘He answered! He understands!’ Satoru pressed his cheeks against Hachi’s whiskers.

Hachi knew one thing for sure: he would keep watch over these two boys as they continued to grow. He and his brother had been abandoned, and he’d ended up in this home, over all others. This had to be so he could watch over Satoru and Ko-chan as they edged towards adulthood.

But I’ve now seen more of the world than any other cat in Japan. And for the rest of my life I’ll never forget the experiences Satoru and I have shared.

Still – given a choice between the view and 4.8 million cans of tasty meat? I’d take the cans, any day.

Satoru lifted the cover up to make space for me to crawl under. I’d trained him well.

Satoru, how can you even consider getting rid of me when fate, in the guise of a lucky-seven hooked tail, brought us together?

If you can make it in time, you want to say goodbye. Want to say thank you, and I love you.