Auto-Home for Wayward Cats 猫

The domestic cat arrived in Japan around 600 C.E., interestingly enough, this is the same period of time when Buddhism was introduced to Japan. At the time, the cat was valued primarily for its rodent catching abilities, it was customary that each Buddhist temple should care for no less than two cats in order to insure that sacrosanct documents would not be eaten by mice. Nowadays the cat is generally revered as a source of cute and or as pets, most major cities even have cat cafes that provide patrons a dose of much needed feline time - in a land with limited real estate for pets. However, the large number of feral cats are also an issue in Japan. Feral cats are wild cats that are unfamiliar with humans and roam freely in urban or rural areas. Feral cats may live alone, but most are found in large groups called feral colonies, which occupy a specific territory and are usually associated with a source of food. Pictured is one member of a feral colony that has taken residence in an abandoned automobile in an industrial area of Nagata.