Haruki Murakami's magnum o-puss The Wind Up Bird Chronicle kicks off with a man, a pot of spaghetti and one missing moggie. In tribute to the great author, highly respected in Japan and revered abroad, the staff at Nekorobi Cat cafe in Higashi-Ikebukuro decided to call their most fantastically bushy and languid Norwegian Forest 'Haruki'. For the duration of my visit to this cat haven, Haruki is defiantly nonchalant, unfussed and unmoved. Once, he stretches and clambers up to a higher post on the cat basket tree, further out of reach. Only when the new toy is produced, a wind-up mouse, do his ears prick up. 5 cats surround it immediately and Haruki actually sit up and stares down malevolently at the bead-eyed, furry little thing. Moments later, to cries of amazement one of the other 13 cats makes off with the mouse, dripping out of his mouth as he canters away.
I've been thinking about the cat cafe ever since I read about it on here. Do you think England's ready for one? There could be a Bagpuss, a Mog, Dick Whittington's cat... and those are just names for the kittens... there must be many old cats in literature too...
ReplyDeleteI'll think about it some more...