One of the two neighborhood cats has died. Mr. Hissy (a.k.a. Hissy-chan or Gray-chan) was found dead behind the neighbor's car yesterday. We don't know how he died exactly, but we (the neighborhood people who loved him) had been worried since we hadn't seen him much on Sunday and not at all on Monday. He was in a big fight with an evil orange cat on Saturday night and at first I thought that might have been what killed him, but other people don't think that is likely. Masashi thinks he was poisoned, either accidentally or deliberately. Many people in the neighborhood loved him, but a few people hate cats, especially if they are fighting noisily late at night.
Several people came by to see him last night as word spread of his death, and some people even brought flowers and treats to set around his body. But he was taken away just now by the city ward. They have special truck to come around and collect dead animals...just a job for them, but they were nice and not at all surprised by the flowers and treats.
The other cat, Mama-chan, is very lonely now, and has been crying a lot last night and today for me to come outside to pet her.
It's true that Hissy-chan was "just a cat", but he was a special cat. He was an unusual color, as you can see, and many, many people looked for him to pet him and talk to him everyday. When he'd hear the footsteps of one of his friends turning into our street, he would go running to meet them. We will miss him!
You can see more pictures of Mr. Hissy and Mama-chan in my June post.
