STRAY CAT CITY: A book about So and Se!

Big news for So and Se. A book about their lives as orphaned street kittens has just been published. It's called STRAY CAT CITY and is currently available on Amazon as both a paperback and a Kindle book. The paperback is priced at only $7.99 and the Kindle at $2.99.

For anyone who purchases a copy, please note that a minimum of 20% of the book's royalties will be donated to Animal Care and Rescue (ARC), a non-profit organization in Ho Chi Minh City that shelters and homes stray cats and dogs just like So and Se.

Following is a description of Stray Cat City taken from the back cover:

During an 18-month stay in Vietnam, author David Joiner and his girlfriend become sidetracked by an orphaned kitten suffering from a broken leg and living by a bridge where dog- and cat-thieves roam. After rescuing the kitten and arranging for it to be sheltered, however, they grow increasingly attached to it and take it into their home, only for its real battle for survival to begin. But this isn't the only cat in need of their help. In STRAY CAT CITY Joiner movingly and humorously chronicles their attempts to help various street cats before it's time for them to leave the country.

For anyone interested in buying a copy for themselves or for friends and loved ones, links to both versions of Stray Cat City can be found below.

Paperback ($7.99): https://www.amazon.com/Stray-Cat-City-David-Joiner/dp/0997715510/

Kindle ($2.99): https://www.amazon.com/Stray-Cat-City-David-Joiner-ebook/dp/B01H18BMOQ/

Cats and Snow

Early this week a big winter storm approached Kanazawa – all of Japan, in fact. On Sunday we saw a public service announcement that recommended stocking up on essentials in case a massive power outage hit and lasted one or two days.

The news excited So and Se and they sat in the windows waiting for the massive snowfall. Whenever it snows they seem to think that snowflakes are white insects falling from the sky. They climb the windows trying to catch them.

  

So-chan and the Sapporo Beer Stein

As I've said before, So-chan is a chewer. Supposedly this is because he didn't have access to his mother as a kitten and thus couldn't nurse. In any case, he chews everything, even his water bowls. In addition, he loves water. He enters the shower as soon as we're done and sometimes even sits in the warm pools left behind on the shower floor. It's no surprise, then, that he likes to overturn his water bowl. Resourceful cat parents that we are, we discovered that our giant Sapporo Beer glass, when kept filled with water, was too heavy for him to knock over. Putting a cat-guard beside the glass to keep young So in line also helps.

Clothes for (cold) cat figurines

It bears only a passing resemblance to clothes people knit for Jizo statues to wear in cold weather, but my wife recently made something like a jacket for the wooden cat atop the gatepost outside our front door.

The cat seems happy enough, if not exactly fashionable.

Cats Can Have Identity Crises, Too

We're raising our cats in a multi-language, multi-cultural household. At 22 months of age, So and Se don't distinguish between the languages we use – variations of "NO!" and "No-o-o-o!" in Vietnamese, Japanese, and English – but they still seem to identify with Vietnam, their country of birth.

Last week So asked if he was a Vietnamese, Japanese, or American cat, or if he had dual cat citizenship. When we explained that the law viewed him as Japanese now, he asked what "law" meant, but then got distracted by some fuzz floating across the floor and forgot that he'd asked a question. When I had his attention again, I said he was now a Japanese cat.

After getting over the initial shock (see photos below), he confessed to feeling "all shook up inside." Almost immediately he heard a crow cawing outside, leaped onto the windowsill, and the subject was dropped.

The Allure of a Bag...and a Cat in a Bag

In anticipation of being fed, So and Se tend to roll around in bags a lot, swing their tails, punch, bite, and sumo wrestle with each other. (They eat four times a day, so we're frequently entertained.)

So-chan Will Be the Ruin of Us

That's the fear anyway. This morning we woke up and discovered...

There is nothing tastier to So-chan's palate, apparently, than wallpaper and wood.

...that So-chan had chewed through not just the wallpaper, but also a protective layer of thicker paper and – there goes our apartment deposit, the equivalent of three months' rent – the wood underneath. This is the third time he's done this, and represents the largest chunk he's taken out of our walls (and possibly our pocketbook) so far. As you can see, So has had a direct impact on our apartment's interior.

Huge swathes of protective paper now decorate the walls in every room and hallway of our apartment.

Each piece of protective paper costs ¥860 ($7.15)... 

In these photos alone you can see 13 separate pieces we've used...

I think I'll try biting my water bowl...

Se-chan has contributed to that look, too, by the use of his claws. So-chan, however, remains the bigger culprit.

Cat graffiti mars our apartment walls.

My wife commented that although we acquired both cats for free by rescuing them, they've since cost us more than any expensive pure breeds might have.

Maybe it's time we open a cat cafe and make So and Se earn their keep. Either that, or fit them with gloves and muzzles. Or one of these...