Speaking of pets…. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in nearly a year of maintaining this blog, I don’t believe I have ever mentioned our cat, Puffy, let alone posted a photo of her. Shame on me for taking so long to fulfill that unassailable right of bloggers to post photos of their pets. So without further ado, here is the sweetie:
The last three weeks haven’t been especially wonderful for Puffy, first having to deal with Naoko not being here, and now shut out of the bedroom on account of Kaika. She and I have been doing a lot of reconnecting lately, and she’s sleeping on my lap as I write this. A year after moving across the Pacific with us, she seems to have adjusted well to Japan. Click the image above for more photos of Puffy.
Do American cats differ in personality from Japanese cats?
So you have a bicultural cat too? I brought my 2 cats over…still can’t believe I did that. Wasn’t quarantine absolutely heartbreaking? And I just couldn’t shell out 10,000 yen to go visit them for 2 hours in a closet, so they braved the 2 weeks basically on their own. Ugh. But worth it.
Anita-
I wouldn’t know! I’ve only met 2 other cats in Japan, and I think those two were from Malaysia! I gotta think that cats wherever they are all have such varying personalities that there probably is no such thing as a typical American cat personality, or Japanese cat personality.
Mie-
Yes, quarantine was probably the worst thing about our move. We tried to get out of it, I had my vet in San Francisco write up something about Puffy’s “heart condition”, but it didn’t work. However, after three days in the Narita cage, she still wasn’t eating, and so they let us come and pick her up. That said, we had to bring her back at the midway point (a week), and then bring her back again at the end of the two-weeks. What an ordeal, traveling over 2 hours each way by train to Narita, just to have the cat checked! Puffy hid under the bed for about the first month of her life in Japan, but now I’d say she’s completely adjusted.
wouldn’t cat and dog furs be unhealthy for your baby? They do carry a lot of dirty things. I didn’t realize that I was allergic to animals with hair until recently, so it might be doing harm to your baby.. don’t know for sure, though. But I wouldn’t have pets and my own baby in the same room.
yuki-
they are not in the same room. that was why I mentioned that these last weeks have been tough for Puffy, not being able to come into the bed room. but I don’t think a pet is so dangerous, certainly for this first month we’re trying to keep the cat (and its hair) far away, but eventually they’ll come together. this site has a good list of common sense things a cat owner should do if when they have a newborn baby .