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Human beings are basically huge monkeys that walk upright, but they can be pretty full of themselves.
Got to get something in return for having my sleep disturbed.
Humans are quite flighty, so I don’t rely on them a hundred percent. A stray cat’s skill lies in building up a complex web of connections in order to survive on the streets.
Acquaintances who understood each other, that’s what the man and I had become.
It’s kind of inconvenient that humans only understand each other. Did you know that animals are much more multilingual?
“Listen, Cat, I was wondering if you would become my cat.”
If you wanted me to be your pet cat, then, well, you should have said so earlier.
For a human, Satoru had a good intuitive sense of cat language and seemed to understand what I was saying.
So Satoru moved with me to a new place in the same town. Going to all that trouble to move just for the sake of one cat—well, maybe I shouldn’t say this, being a cat myself, but that was one fired-up cat lover.
Aren’t cats with hooked tails supposed to bring good fortune? thought Kosuke.
“Sometimes, I get the feeling he can understand what people are saying. He’s pretty bright.” Humans who think we don’t understand them are the stupid ones.
Because it was a very special thing—to have your own cat in your own home.
When they’d found Hachi he’d been only a kitten, but now he seemed more grown up than Satoru.
Distant relatives you hardly ever see are, to a child, like total strangers. Friends are much closer. Why don’t adults understand that?
Satoru was living in Tokyo, but now that they were adults, distance wasn’t so much of an obstacle.
If things aren’t good, I have no problem saying so. Because cats are creatures that can say no.
Jeez. Humans. Even when they grow up, they just don’t get things.
It’s about time you cut the strings and got over your father. Cats, you know, are independent from their parents six months after they’re born.
Satoru should be thankful I’m such an exceptionally bright cat.
Cats have their own preferences when it comes to music. Did you know that?
Humans are so easy-going. A cat’s behavior is controlled by real-life factors, and for strays the weather can be a matter of life and death. Our success rate in hunting changes, too.
Enough. Yoshimine shook his head hard to put a stop to the thoughts spinning around in it. There’s no use thinking about something that can’t be undone.
From my first experience of the sea, I learned a valuable lesson. The sea is where you go to reminisce when you are far away from home.
Chikako seemed to believe categorically that Satoru’s love for his cat would overcome all obstacles. When it came to cat love, the two of them had always been on the same wavelength.
Whenever there’s anything major happening in our family we need to inform both our dog and cat—this proposal by Chikako had become a firm family rule.
All well and good, but no matter how appealing a book might be, I can’t read it. As I explained earlier, most animals are multilingual when it comes to listening, but reading is beyond us. Reading and writing seem to belong to a special linguistic system that only humans possess.
Our silver van was like a magic carriage. Every time I got into it, it carried me to a place I’d never been before. At that moment, we were without doubt the greatest travelers in the world. And I was the world’s greatest traveling cat.
No other animal in the world would try to defy the laws of nature, but humans are a very peculiar species.
Cats might not seem it, but we are nothing if not patient.
When an animal’s life is over, it rests where it falls, and it often seems to me that humans are such worriers, to think of preparing a place for people to sleep when they are dead. If you have to consider what’s going to happen after you die, life becomes doubly troublesome.
You ask if we cats can see ghosts. Don’t you know that there are things in this world that are better left a mystery?
On our last journey, let’s see all kinds of amazing things. Let’s spend our time taking in as many wonderful sights as we can. That’s what I had pledged yesterday, when we set off.
Don’t worry. I get things done faster by myself.”
If he’s going to leave this world at such a young age, she thought, the least I could have done was to give him a happier childhood.
Cats the world over prefer to discover things they like on their own and rarely go for anything that’s been provided for them.
Learning to have some insight into other people’s sensitivities was, she concluded, more difficult than mastering the law.
I am Satoru’s one and only cat. And Satoru is my one and only pal. And a proud cat like me wasn’t about to abandon his pal. If living as a stray was what it took to be Satoru’s cat to the very end, then bring it on.
After you passed away, the people who miss you all became connected.
My story will be over soon. But it’s not something to be sad about. As we count up the memories from one journey, we head off on another. Remembering those who went ahead. Remembering those who will follow after. And someday, we will meet all those people again, out beyond the horizon.
