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ashleymichaelday · 2 years

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The Mobility Scooter and the Sea

Ashley Michael Day

Merryn Penrose drove her mobility scooter down the steep inclining road to Mullion Cove. A remote Victorian harbour off the rugged Cornish coast. A solid stone structure with a looming harbour wall nestled between two towering jagged cliffs. It was a wild spot. Filled with the sounds of crashing waves and shrieking gulls.

"Diet and exercise," her Doctor had prescribed, "and plenty of it! You don't need that mobility scooter. Just shed a few pounds and it will do you the world of good."

Merryn chose to take up fishing. Only because she thought it would require little effort. Golf involved too much standing and swinging for her liking. So here she was. Following her doctor's orders.

She'd been fishing for a few weeks now and had devised a way to do it without any work at all! She had designed a way to tether the rod to her mobility scooter using a rudimentary cup holder. And once she got a bite, she would simply reverse and pull out her catch. No matter how much line the fish would take.

Piece of cake.

The tide was in. No boats were moored in the box harbour. It was deserted.

Grey clouds had gathered causing a squall out on the horizon. Making the sea swell.

She cast her line into the water. Dropped her rod into its holder. And strapped herself into her Mobility scooter.

Now comes the best part of fishing.

The waiting…

She had purchased herself a fresh crab roll from the local cafe. If anything, Merryn had gained weight since taking up her new pursuit. The air was rich with salt from the crashing surf that seemed to season her shell fish snack. She took a rewarding bite of the sweet meat and citrus lemon mayonnaise. Enjoying the seclusion. She felt like the last woman on earth.

The only interruption came from the cracking of the line being pulled.

'Ah! Here we go, first catch of the day.'

The initial surprise of getting a bite had worn off. It was always a mackerel. At first she'd been fascinated by their dark green tiger striped scales, but now that her chest freezer was full of them, the novelty had ebbed away.

She took another bite from her sandwich, when suddenly, her line was pulled out to sea at an alarming rate! The reel was spinning round so fast she feared it would start to smoke. Merryn's alarm increased once the reel ran out of slack. Till now, she would let the poor fish exhaust itself, then, when it had lost its fight, she would pull it in.

But not this fish.

This was not the catch she was expecting!

Her rod bowed under the strain as the fish attempted to swim away. Merryn spluttered a mouth full of bread and crab as she was pulled towards the water.

In her panic, she reached for the Mobility scooter's controls and slammed it in reverse. The tiny vehicle beeped in complaint as her catch pulled her towards the harbour edge.

Whatever it is, she thought, it's no mackerel.

Her tires squealed under the strain as the rubber burned. She was losing this game of tug of war. Despite the scooter's valiant effort, she was slowly creeping closer and closer to the edge.

Merryn tried to use her body as an anchor. Leaning back against the chair with all her weight. Digging her heels into the solid stone quay. She grimaced under the strain, but her efforts paid off. She had slowed the animal's momentum.

What was it? she wondered. A fish? A seal? A shark?!

Whatever it was, it wasn't through with her yet…

The creature from the deep continued to tug and thrash on the line. The fishing rod was nearly bent in two! Merryn prayed that the line would snap from the force.

'Help!' she screamed, hoping someone at the cafe could hear her cries. 'For the love of God! Help me, someone!'

But no one came.

She was all alone.

Leaning back with all her might, Merryn's heart was racing. The heels of her trainers skidded against the stone pier. With her one free hand she reached for the fishing rod. It was twisted in its holder preventing her from abandoning it. Merryn tugged at the shaft, but the rod wouldn't give. She tried to reel in the line, but the handle was taught to breaking point. As she struggled to release the rod, she felt the rear tyre shred beneath her.

The exploding tyre caused the vehicle to lose its balance. The scooter tipped backwards, leaving Merryn sprawled with her legs in the air like a toppled tortoise. The scooter spun and scraped across the stone as it was pulled towards the precipice.

Merryn gasped as she looked up and saw a sight that turned the very blood in her veins into ice! Four gigantic Octopus tentacles had slithered out of the water and were groping for its prey. These engorged alien limbs, with their grasping, plunger-like suckers, sprawled out across the quayside. Their purple flesh twisting and writhing as they pulled at the fishing line, as one coiled tentacle clung to the harbour wall.

Merryn desperately struggled to undo her seatbelt as this monstrous creature pulled her closer to those flexing limbs. She was only a few yards away from those fleshy tentacles, when she finally unclipped herself from the seat, and rolled herself free. She watched as those twisting tentacles entwined around the scooter and pulled the vehicle over the side.

A loud splash drowned out the crashing waves against the cliffs.

Merryn rose on shaky legs as she gingerly walked to the end of the ledge. As she peered down at the water, all she could see was a vast white foam. The disturbed water bubbled like an insidious cauldron. But no sooner had it been churned up, the froth vanished, taking both the creature from the deep and her mobility scooter with it…

#short story #short stories #author #authorlife #flash fiction #books & libraries #art #culture #food #funny #flash fic challenge #short fiction #horror #thriller #fiction

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sciencenewsforstudents · 5 years

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When it comes to revealing when and how wild felines became couch kitties, the cat is starting to come out of the bag. Cats were likely first tamed in the Middle East. Later, they spread — first by land, then by sea — to the rest of the world, researchers now report.

Early farmers brought cats with them to Europe from the Middle East by 6,400 years ago. That’s the conclusion from looking at DNA from 352 ancient cats. A second wave of migration, perhaps by ship, appears to have occurred some 5,000 years later. That’s when Egyptian cats quickly colonized Europe and the Middle East.

Researchers describe how they came to these dates in a new study. It was published June 19 in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Domestication (Doh-MES-ti-kay-shun) is the long and slow process by which people have adapted wild animals or plants to be tame and useful. Wolves became dogs, for instance. Wild ox became cattle. And wildcats became house cats.

Exactly where and when this happened to cats, though, has been a matter of great debate. Researchers had only the DNA from modern cats to work with. These data showed that house cats had been tamed from African wildcats. What was not clear was when domesticated cats began to spread around the world. Now, new ways of studying ancient DNA are pointing to some answers.

Eva-Maria Geigl and Thierry Grange are behind this deepest dive yet into the genetic history of cats. They are molecular biologists. Both work at the Institute Jacques Monod in Paris, France. Mitochondria (My-tow-KON-dree-uh) are tiny energy-producing structures inside cells. They contain a bit of DNA. Only mothers, not fathers, pass mitochondria (and its DNA) to their offspring. Scientists use slightly different varieties of mitochondrial DNA, called mitotypes, to track the female side of families.

Geigl, Grange and their colleagues collected mitochondrial DNA from 352 ancient cats and 28 modern wildcats. These felines spanned 9,000 years. They came from regions stretching across Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia.

Ancient Egyptians often depicted cats in paintings and statues. Cats were frequently first portrayed as hunters killing snakes. Later, they showed felines curled up under chairs (like this cat from a copy of a wall painting in the private tomb of a man named Nakht in Thebes). That progression may mirror the cat’s transformation from a solitary, wild hunter that captured vermin around ancient farmers’ grain stores to a sociable house pet, say researchers involved in a new study.

CREDIT:ANNA (NINA) MACPHERSON DAVIES © ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM/UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

About 10,000 to 9,500 years ago, African wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) may have tamed themselves. They would have hunted rodents and scavenged scraps from the homes of early farmers in the Middle East. People probably encouraged the cats to hang around as a way for these farmers to control mice, rats, snakes and other vermin. The arrangement would have been “mutually profitable for both sides,” explains Grange.

No one really knows how friendly people and cats were with each other at the beginning of cat domestication. Some people may have been very close to their pet cats. Indeed, one person on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, 9,500 years ago, was buried with a cat. Says Geigl, this suggests that some people, back then, already had close ties to cats.

Before early farmers started migrating from the Middle East to Europe, European wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris) carried one mitotype. It’s called clade I. A 6,400-year-old Bulgarian cat and a 5,200-year-old Romanian cat had a different type of mitochondrial DNA. They both had mitotype IV-A*. That mitotype was previously seen only in domesticated cats from what is now Turkey.

Cats are territorial and usually don’t roam far. This suggests people must have transported cats to Europe.

Wildcats and early domestic cats all looked the same with tiger-striped, mackerel coat patterns. Now, though, about 80 percent of modern domestic cats carry a mutation that gives a cat a blotched tabby coat pattern. New genetic data suggest this mutation first popped up in Southwest Asia during the Middle Ages. (Boxes in chart represent ancient cats sampled as part of a DNA study. Blue indicates mackerel coats and red the blotched tabby pattern.) The blotched look may have spread rapidly because it helped people distinguish their kitties from all the mackerel look-alikes.

CREDIT: C. OTTONI ET AL/NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION 2017

Mummies (and more) tell another story

Domesticated cats in Africa — including three cat mummies from Egypt — had yet another mitotype. It’s known as IV-C. Until about 2,800 years ago, that type was found mostly in Egypt. But then it began showing up in Europe and the Middle East. And between 1,600 and 700 years ago, it spread far and fast. By then, seven of nine of the ancient European cats the researchers tested now carried this Egyptian type of DNA. Among them was a 1,300- to 1,400-year-old cat from a Viking port far to the north, on the Baltic Sea.

Thirty-two of 70 cats from Southwest Asia also had that mitotype. That rapid spread may indicate that sailors traveled with cats, some of which could have jumped ship to find a new home.

The speedy spread of the Egyptian cats’ DNA could mean that something made these animals especially attractive to people, Geigl and Grange say. House cats aren’t much different from wildcats. The big difference is that domestic cats tolerate people. And the Egyptian cats may have been particularly friendly. They may have more resembled the type of purring pet found in homes today, the researchers speculate. Earlier house cats might have been more comfortable with people than wildcats were, but still have qualified as scaredy cats.

There’s not enough evidence to say that, counters Carlos Driscoll of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Working at its Laboratory of Comparative Behavioral Genomics, he studies the genetic bases of some behavioral traits. And Driscoll now suggests another reason why Egyptian cats got popular so fast: They may have lived along shipping and trade routes. That would have made hopping a boat to some new port easy, especially if they offered to work as mousers on the ship.

Earlier cats may have been just as popular, Driscoll says, but moving them would have been harder. Those early cats, he says, would have been “dependent on somebody putting a bunch of kittens in a basket and walking across a desert with them.”

#science #scied #sciblr #animals #cats #national cat day #genetics #DNA #domestication

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portersnotebook · 7 years

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The Pirate Cat of Galata

Adnan stroked the cat’s mangled ear while it ate.

“What happened to you, eh, my little friend?”

The cat, in their manner, ignored Adnan and continued to eat. Adnan sat beside it on the small stool he put in front of his shop in the morning and drank a glass of tea and smoked a cigarette. When the cat had finished eating, it jumped into his lamp and curled up for a snooze.

“I know where you got the ear, my little friend. It was a fight over a girl, wasn’t it? Yes, isn’t it always with us men.” In truth, Adnan did not know the cat’s gender. The cat, in their manner, was rather private about this sort of thing.

“She had tiger’s stripes. I’ve seen her. She eats over at Çinar’s shop across the street. A good bride for a handsome fellow like you. Your claws and teeth flashed in the moonlight of that alley. Did you win her? I think you chased her other suitor off and then, hmmm. What did you do then?” He ran a gentle hand down the cat’s side and it opened one eye as if to warn him. “Then you sauntered off. Can’t have her thinking you fought just for her, can you?” Adnan chuckled and the cat grunted and hopped out of his lap and slunk around a corner.

“Oh, come now, my little friend. Don’t get offended!” Adnan called.

Adnan sold musical instruments that he made himself in a small shop on Galipdede Street. The street was narrow, wafting like wood smoke on its way down the steep hill from Istiklal Street toward the bridge across Bosporus blue. The tower rose above it all, and around its base were small cafes and teashops. In the evening young people gathered on the wide steps to play music and drink bottles of Efes. Their voices and cigarette smoke gathered around the base of the tower like mist. In the window of his shop Adnan’s precious, 13-stringed oudlar hung like ripe fruit.

He did not see the cat again for many days, but when it did return, winding around his legs and waiting with great patience for him to move his cigarette to his other hand so that it could butt against his fingers, it had a new pink scar along its side.

“What’s happened to you now? Let me see.” Adnan, because he was almost as clever as a cat, though that “almost” is still an insurmountable distance by miles, put a saucer of milk on a little table near his lap so the cat would be forced to sit there to eat. It suffered this indignity, in the manner of cats, with grace. “I know. You’ve been gone so long. You stowed away with pirates, didn’t you? Good treats of fresh fish when one lives among pirates. They love cats almost as much as shopkeepers do, it is known. There was a great battle on the deck of a rich plan’s pleasure boat and in a flashing storm you leapt in the middle of a sword fight and distracted his bodyguard. They paid you in mackerel, but you paid in flesh, didn’t you?”

The cat, in the manner of cats, did not confirm this.

“Very well, little one,” Adnan said, “Keep your secrets. Did you know that without at least one secret, a cat might lose his claws? It is true. All men know this.” The cat curled up in Adnan’s lap, unconcerned about its claws, its secrets, or men either. Years passed and Adnan wove another story for every one of the cat’s absences and for every new scar. The cat led an orphan thief to safety from the street market on the Galata side of the bridge as a man chased the boy with a rusty lawnmower blade. It fought with younger felines for primacy of the alley around the corner and the privilege of eating at Adnan’s shop, who kept the best food, as all men know. It crept into a rug shop near Sultanahmet and slipped into the lap of a young tourist from Australia. The merchant had remarked on how his precious cat allowed almost nobody to touch him, and the charmed young man bought two rugs instead of one. He would give one to his mother and strap the second to his ruck.

Years passed. Adnan got older and so did the cat. He was missing an eye, and he slunk with a hitch. A day came when he arrived and meowed to be lifted into Adnan’s lap instead of tricked, and there he sat the whole day, snoozing against the shopkeeper’s warmth. Adnan lost business that day because he would not disturb the cat. That night when he closed the shop, the cat did not leave and in the morning it curled itself into a comfortable patch of sunlight on the doorstep that seemed to shine just for it.

“Even the sun loves you, my little friend.” Adnan said and tested his tea glass with his fingers to make sure it was cool enough to drink.

“Welcome home.”

A pair of tourists passed, dangling guidebooks and cameras, and wearing boots meant for mountain climbing. A little blond girl swung between them and she stopped, tugging at their hands.

“Look at that lazy cat, mama.”

Adnan shook his head. “Lazy? This cat is the most interesting cat you will ever meet, dear.”

The girl’s eyes went wide and dragged her parents closer.

“Why? He looks like any old cat.” Her parents tugged at her, but she held fast and Adnan winked at her father and lowered his voice to a theatrical whisper.

“Let me tell you about the pirate cat of Galipdede Street.”

The cat, in the manner of cats, did not stir as its legend was told. Photo Credit: Galata Tower, Istanbul, 1870. Photo by Pascal Sebah

#januariad #flash fiction

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kyotocollection · 7 years

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Japanese Cat Names

Japanese cat names are an interesting window onto the culture. Are you looking for a Japanese name for your kitten? Or maybe you've seen a famous cat or two in manga or anime and are curious about what sort of names Japanese people choose for their feline friends. Whatever the basis for your curiosity, I'll do my best to share what I've learned as an animal lover living in Japan since 1997. I've enlisted the help of Japanese friends in this pursuit, to be sure that my understanding squares with theirs, and ended up learning as well as confirming a lot in the process!

Let's look at some names for male and female cats. More than just giving a name with a translation, I want to pass along some related information that will give you a better idea of naming conventions in Japan so that if you're looking for a name, you'll have more confidence in going with your inspiration and choosing something whether it's on a list or not.

I also want to introduce you to katakana, the relatively simple Japanese syllabary that's most often used to write pet names. And I'll mention a point that's often overlooked, natural intonation so that when you call to your cat, it sounds pretty much the same as it would if the owner were a native speaker. We'll also take a look at an important aspect of names in general in Japan, suffixes that add warmth and familiarity when used.

Foreign Pet Names-It Goes Both Ways

So let's dive in. First off, it's worth noting that In Japan, pet owners sometimes choose a western name over a Japanese one for the same reason you might be considering something Japanese-it's a novel way to express your interest in a culture outside your own and to be a bit different.

And when Japanese people choose a western name for a pet, it's often a person's name. A Japanese friend once had a dog named John, for example. I never asked her why she it, but I'd bet she liked an actor or singer by that name. The most famous Japanese cat with a western name is probably Michael of 'What's Michael?' fame. The manga was such a hit that it spawned a long running animated TV series in the 80's.

Japanese people sometimes choose the names of Japanese celebrities for their pets as well. So if there's a Japanese actor or musician you like, you might consider using a version of their name. Ichiro isn't likely to be offended if you're a baseball fan and name your cat after him!

Speaking of stars, Leo the Lion isn't just a constellation, he's also one one reason why there are so many cats in Japan with the name, pronounced 'Lay-Oh.'

In similar fashion, the Japanese word for tiger, Tora, works quite well as a name because it's short and it's no stretch to imagine most cats as mini tigers, especially if they have stripes. Most cat names in Japan seem to be two syllables, with some three-syllable monikers in the mix. Keeping it short and sweet is a good angle to approach things from, it seems.

Japanese Cat Names from Flowers and Plants

Flowers and plants are another source of inspiration. Japanese girls are often named after flowers and cats are, too. The Japanese word for flower is hana, and Hana is a very popular name for female cats.

You might well already know some Japanese plant names like Sakura(cherry) and Ume(plum). Momo(peach) and Sakura are also among the most popular female cat names in Japan. But don't stop there-other flowers such as Kiku(chrysanthemum) are also prime candidates! Mums have a rich, regal history in Japan and are associated with the Imperial family.

I thought up some names of fruits in Japanese and ran them by some Japanese friends, wondering if they would work as cat names. These are the ones that passed muster as cute, easy to say possibilities for female cats-Ichigo(strawberry), Suika(watermelon), Anzu(apricot), and Mikan(mandarin orange.)

Think of various aspects of these names and others. If for example, you got your cat in summer or she was born then or just strikes you as having a summery personality, referring to her as the Japanese word for watermelon might hit just the right note.

Another fruit name that got the thumb's up from Japanese friends was Ringo(apple), but I nixed it because though it's indeed catchy, you might be mistaken for a die-hard Beatles fan with that one, and could soon get fed up with explaining the real meaning behind the choice!

Use Your Cat's Appearance as Inspiration

Another fertile filed to plow when it comes to names is your cat's coloring. In Japan, the words for black(kuro) and white(shiro) are both standard choices for cats and dogs of both sexes.

If you happen to have a calico cat, you might consider the name Mi-ke. I added the hyphen to try and differentiate it from the common western name Mike, as it's pronounced Mee-kay. It literally means 'three-hair' and refers to the three colors of fur that calicoes sport. Japanese calicoes are usually predominantly white along with two other colors, and are a very popular breed in Japan and abroad. Many Japanese cat owners in fact name their calico Mi-ke, just as countless western dog lovers over the decades have named their pooches Spot.

Is your cat small? Then maybe something like 'Mame(pronounced (Mah-may) would be just right. Mame means bean in Japanese, and has a cute, diminutive sound to it. You might know this word already, as it's part of the word for soy beans, edamame(literally, branch bean). In a similar way, the name Mikan mentioned above has an endearing connotation, as it brings to mind something small and round.

Speaking of beans, the most popular female cat name in Japan taken from something edible might be 'Azuki.' Azuki is a type of bean that's often used in Japanese cuisine, especially in making traditional sweets. The notion of eating beans in sweets seems odd to many westerners, but take my word for it, bean based sweets are delicious and you shouldn't come to Japan without trying some!

So naming your female cat Azuki, pronounced 'Ah-zu-key, would be a great choice if you're looking for a name that is 'authentic' in the sense that Japanese cat owners favor it. And as with Mame, being a type of bean it carries with it the same cute, petite connotation. Since azuki beans are reddish brown, this name would work especially well if your cat has similar coloring. Do a net search for 'azuki' and you'll find photos of this culinary staple.

Traditional Seafood and Sweet Names Add a Wealth of Possibilities

All this talk about food is getting me hungry, so let's brainstorm with some words from Japanese cuisine that might strike your fancy.

Wasabi anyone? How about Matcha(green tea)? Or Toro(fatty tuna, a delicacy)? Then there's Wakame(a variety of seaweed), Ikura(salmon eggs), Saba(mackerel), Awabi(abalone), and the list goes on. In a similar way, many Japanese dog and cat owners choose names like 'Latte' and Mocha' these days. I think that names taken from seafood cuisine can be especially good fits with cat names, since they seem to enjoy such delicacies at least as much as we do!

I have a sweet tooth, so I'm partial to Mochi(pounded rice cake) sweets of all kinds. I also have a weakness for Dango(usually 3-4 small balls of mochi pounded rice on a stick). We could go on and on brainstorming with foods, and I encourage you to have some fun with this. But with foods and with this process in general, take care not to get too esoteric, because you might well come to regret choosing a name that only you and a friend or two can remember and understand.

Japanese culture is finely tuned to the seasons and the natural world, and the cuisine reflects that. You'll see ample evidence of this focus on nature in names like Sora, the word for sky. It's a staple on recent ranking lists for popular Japanese cat names and can be used for both males and females. Note that the 'r' in sora is pronounced a bit differently than in English.

Famous Japanese Cats

I've already mentioned a famous cat, Michael, though he only exists in the world of comics and animation. Ask about the most famous Japanese cat who's ever lived, and the name Tama is bound to come up. Perhaps because she gained fame so recently. In any case, she was certainly a phenomenon!

Tama was a female calico who died in 2015 after going viral as the station master at Kishi Station in western Japan. She gained an international following and was responsible for a huge surge in tourism to the area. The name Tama is a cat name with a long history in Japan, much as the name Socks is thought of as a traditional cat name in some English speaking countries. As a name it doesn't carry any special meaning, its popularity is mainly due to the way it sounds-short, easy to say and somehow endearing.

Sometimes a good name can boil down simply that. And having such a common name certainly never held Tama back! If anything, it made her even more memorable. Of course the little station master's cap she wore at a jaunty angle also made her hard to forget!

If you happen to be a fan of the perennially popular manga Sazae-san about a family and their foibles that was first published in the 40's, you'll also know that the family's male cat was called Tama.

And Tama was also the name chosen by the company that produces a series of cat themed furoshiki Japanese fabric cloths that I feature in my shop, as well. This particular Tama is quite active with an eye for scenic spots, including the charming traditional buildings accented by cherry blossoms in full bloom on the furoshiki cloth below:

Other Key Cultural Notes

Now let's move to some general points about Japanese cat names. First, intonation for names is basically flat. So all syllables get similar stress. It's common for native English speakers to pronounce the names of Japanese people as well as pets as they would in English, which often results in unnatural pronunciation. This often happens with three syllable words, as the middle syllable often gets stressed when it shouldn't get such special attention. I have a Japanese friend named Yumiko who lives in the states, for example, who is often called 'Yu-MI-ko with the middle part stressed. Similarly, Yukiko is known as 'Yu-KI-ko.'

This tendency doesn't manifest much in two syllable words, and since most common pet names are short, like Tama, they end up being pronounced pretty much as they should be, with equal stress given to both syllables. But others, like Azuki that we looked at above, can become 'Ah-ZU-ki' if you're not aware of this aspect of Japanese language.

Then there's the custom of adding suffixes to names. This is a key point to keep in mind, as it might steer you toward choosing one cat name over another, depending on how the name sounds in this form.

If you're an anime or manga fan, you're probably already well aware of the propensity to add 'chan' and 'kun' to the end of names. Kun is basically used for boys and men, and like chan, conveys a familiarity and warmth. Chan can be used for young boys as well as for girls and women. Adults can use these honorific suffixes with friends to show affection, though it's rude to use these suffixes to address a superior. The first three letters of 'chan' are pronounced as in the name of the Cuban dance known as the Cha-Cha.

When we consider pet names, chan is the one to focus on, because it covers both sexes when it comes to animals. And since pets are more often than not seen as cute and endearing, it's very natural to add chan to the end of their names. So, Sora becomes Sora-chan. Tama is Tama-chan. Presto! What was a cute name to start with gets even more so.

Some names lend themselves better to the 'chan' treatment, in terms of how easily it all rolls off your tongue. Take for instance the sweets mochi and dango I mentioned above as possibilities. 'Mochi-chan' is a bit harder to say than 'dango-chan' so based strictly on that, the latter would win out.

One thing to keep in mind with this-chan is usually something you use to refer to someone else's child or pet, not your own. It's not rude or inappropriate to use it for your own pet, but it's most often a way for others to express a sense of affection and closeness for someone outside their own immediate family. So if you choose a Japanese name for your cat, informing those around you of this 'chan' add-on will pay dividends!

Finally, I'd like to make a list of all the names we've covered here, includes my brainstorms and some cat names that are among the most popular in Japan. When there's a meaning, I'll include that, and I'll also add the name as it's written in the katakana alphabet. Often there is a kanji character for a name, but even then, the katakana is preferred when its used as a pet's name. I've included the kanji characters mainly to illustrate just how simple the katakana is by comparison!

So if you have an interest in what a name looks like when written, don't make it unnecessarily hard by considering kanji characters. Katakana characters are not only simple in their minimal number of angular strokes, but they're also preferred according to convention in this context. Knowing a bit more about Japanese cat names, including not only their meanings but how they're used can be a great way to delve more deeply into the culture in general. If you have any questions related to this topic, please leave a comment!

Name Katakana/Kanji sex meaning/reference Ichiro イチロー M Baseball player Tora トラ　虎 M/F tiger Hana ハナ　花 F flower Sakura サクラ　桜 F cherry, cherry blossom Ume ウメ　梅 F plum, plum blossom Momo モモ　　　桃F peach, peach blossom Ichigoイチゴ　苺F strawberrySuikaスイカ　西瓜F watermelonAnzuアンズ　F apricotMikan ミカン　F mandarin orange Kuro クロ　黒M/F blackShiroシロ　白M/F whiteMi-keミケ　三毛M/F calicoMameマメ　豆M/F beanWasabiワサビ　M/F Japanese horseradish Matchaマッチャ　抹茶M/F Japanese green tea ToroトロM/F high grade cut of tuna IkuraイクラM/Fsalmon eggs Sabaサバ　　鯖M/FmackerelWakameワカメ　若布M/F seaweedAwabiアワビ　 M/F abaloneMochiモチ　餅M/F pounded rice cakes Dangoダンゴ　団子M/F skewered pounded rice cakes Soraソラ　空M/F skyTamaタマM/F ------ Kikuキク　菊F chrysanthemum

from Kyoto Collection: Latest News http://kyotocollection.com/blog/japanese-cat-names/

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