Cats

[sighyoung]

[The Third Man]

I have a new roommate.

[Radbird]

You had a cup on, right?

[stlouie_lipp]

I hope the kitten like movies.

[Jocephus]

[sighyoung]

[Mary1966]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/j ... tionmaster

In an outpouring of grief usually reserved for the passing of a cultural icon, thousands turned out at the weekend to bid a final farewell to a cat credited with saving an obscure Japanese railway line from financial ruin.

An estimated 3,000 people, including railway officials, attended Tama the cat’s Shinto-style funeral on Sunday, days after she died of heart failure aged 16 – the equivalent of about 80 human years.

Tama quickly became Japan’s most famous cat after she was appointed honorary stationmaster at the unmanned Kishi station in rural Wakayama prefecture, western Japan, in 2007.

Before long, visitors flocked to the station to see the former stray – a custom-made stationmaster’s cap perched on her head – welcome and see off passengers, giving a desperately needed boost to the sleepy, and heavily indebted, Kishigawa line.

She will officially be made a Shinto goddess in August.

[Maclowery]

I had multiple links to this pop up today.

I think it's pretty freaking awesome. I knew about Tama before this news, through a college friend (yay Iowa!) who loves Japanese culture so much, he majored in English and took Japanese language courses until complete fluency, and moved over there to teach English to rich kids in Osaka. Dude also likes cats a lot, and had linked stories about how many people went out on this random-ass train route hoping to see a stray cat.

Anyway, it generated money, made tons of people happy, and now a cat is going to be deified. Definitely awesome.

[Famous Mortimer]

Agreed. I knew about Tama from Cuteoverload, just a lovely story all round.

[Jocephus]