Finding a book that is written for a pet is a rare thing, at least for me. Accordingly, my expectation was not very high as I was unsure what to expect. However, after reading James’ review, I was very intrigued and decided to give it a try.

This book is my second Japanese book–I’ve never published a review of the first one–which is written by Takashi Hiraide.

The story is set in 80-90s in Japan, when the Author and his wife moved to a new place–a beautiful small house. After a few days of settling in, they started to have a self-invited guest, a cat named Chibi. The couple was empathetic to other people and animals, and the Author’s wife, in particular, had a deeper understanding (or feelings) for other species. This becomes clear in one of her lines, which really stuck with me: Each being has its own character regardless of its species.

Although as a tenant, the Author was neither allowed to have a pet and nor did he have any first-hand experience with cats, they (Author and wife) started developing an emotional bond with the cat. In the whole book, they never touched the cat, but in their house, they had a place where Chibi could sleep, eat and rest. The cat became an important part of their life. However in the end something horrible happened, which changed the course of their lives,

This book was a quick read and what I loved was the depthness of emotions the Author felt himself and also conveyed to us. As you can guess, the whole book was not just a story but a memoirs of the Author. There was no suspense, no fiction, but incidents from real human life. The relationship between Chibi and the Author’s family remained important throughout the book. However, the Author also described, at many places, the importance of small moments of his mundane life with surreal emotions. For instance, his repeated encounter with a dragonfly in the same season for two consecutive years, when he was supposed to be dead, filled me with a feeling of awe. Later the author confirmed that, indeed it was the same dragonfly that he met last year. This was the beauty of the book where he cherished seemingly unimportant things.

The irony of human life is that it is boring most of the time except in some specific moments. Chibi was part of that specific moment of life, and the book was truly enjoyable whenever Chibi appeared. However, the rest of the time, when the Author talked about his life, especially about his profession or his neighbours, the book became boring. This is rather a small part of the book, but still. So I recommend this book to those who like memoirs or short books that can spark deeper emotions, and who can deal with slight boredom.