The colored leaves have fallen and a cold winter is approaching day by day here at Mt. Yatsugatake.
On the other hand, it makes me feel warm to see my cats covered with fluffy fur, curled up their bodies and sleeping comfortably in my house.
I have three cats, each of them came to my house by respective reason.
One came from an owner who had developed an allergy to cat, another from an owner who had many cats already and had no room to spare for the newborn, and the third one was a lost cat. Among them, it seems that a kitten born in this summer is getting on well with the one and only tomcat.
Perhaps because his fatherhood instincts is awoke, he takes care of the kitten devotedly.
It seems that the kitten, too, shows her affection for the tom with every part of her body as if he were her big brother, father or may be even mother.
When I was watching them huddled together, I suddenly remembered a picture book called “The Cat That Lived A Million Times” so I took it out of my daughter’s bookshelf.
The book is about a cat that does not die for a million years, dies a million times and lives a million times with a million masters in various times, and finally he meets the most beloved white cat.
The story makes me think about “Encounter”.
I am not sure if my cats have made their ways to my house after repeating a million times of life and death, but I feel happy about encountering them and being their family.
It is surely warm.
Reference: “The Cat That Lived A Million Times”, written & drawn by Yoko Sano, published by Kodansha.