Sometimes, life doesn't go as planned. That is perhaps what I should have on my tombstone. But that is the main reason that my lovable, snuggling cat named Pita came to Japan with Jason and Debbie at Christmas. Since they were in college and allowed to have pets in their off campus housing, they had no problem that first semester when I left. But they were informed after the first semester that renovations would require that they move out of their current housing. They could not find anything that allowed pets on short notice.
When I heard they wanted to bring him to me, I said yes, but then was left with flight arrangements, checking quarantines and all those legalities. It turned out that it was much easier to bring in a cat than a dog, and Pita simply needed up to date shots, medical papers from a vet, and a small fee to fly in a cat carrier. Pita was on his way.
Pita came to me to replace a cat we had had for many years. Jason surprised me, and one morning I came downstairs to find a sweet little white kitten peeking out at me from under a chest. Little did we know what a personality this kitten would develop. We tried so many names, me leaning toward cutesy things like Blossom, and Jason and his friend Mike suggesting masculine names like Winston, Churchill, MacArthur and so on. At some point Jason suggested Fairbanks and I was leaning toward that as a good choice. We all wanted to have an Alaskan adventure one day.
And then Jason said, "Or we could name him Pita, for pain in the a.. (butt)." Well, this sweet little kitten had a way of waking us up in the most unnerving ways. He would come into our rooms about 5:30 a.m. and make noises. In my room he would leap to the top of a 4 foot high chest and one by one knock off the textbooks I laid up there after studying. Nothing like a 2 pound book hitting the floor at that hour to set your senses off into shock. And as you all probably know, most cats are not going to listen when you say, yell, scream, "Stop that!" and he would get us up. And so he was named Pita Fairbanks. He was two when he came to Japan that winter.
I took the afternoon bus to Fukuoka to meet the kids and Pita when they came in via Northwest Airlines. There's a train that comes straight to the train station in the city and I knew they could handle that on their own. But I was worried not about the kids, but about how the cat had handled an overseas flight. He was not exactly a world traveler, but he was a confident, friendly type, not the hyper type. But 37,000 ft. of altitude might change that!
They were prepared with a soft-sided, but sturdy cat carrier, leash and halter, and tranquilizers while I arrived at the train station with a pouch of food, 2 dishes for water and food, a small bag of litter, a large shoe box and some plastic bags. We were awfully glad to see each other, especially me, but we quickly got over that and prepared to deal with a dazed or wild cat. Instead I found out that they had all been upgraded to first class, including the cat! And he had remained calm and quiet so they never even medicated him. I am not sure I am over that fact yet. (I am not a calm flier.)
The bus station had settled down for the evening when we were all uniting, so we walked about and found an extremely well-suited corner, with a dividing wall between it and the main waiting area. It was dark and no one else but the 3 of us and the cat were remotely interested in it. There were about 20 people on the other side of the wall in a well lit room with chairs. Since we had no chairs, we spread out suitcases and Pita's dishes on the floor and sat down next to him where we gave him some space and got him out of the carrier. He simply stared at us and sat quietly looking around, getting his bearings.
When I tried to show him the food, he peered around and came and ate some. Then he had some water. Wow! I could not have imagined he would have been so easy. I got the litter box ready for him, but he was not interested yet. A lone traveler, an elderly Japanese man, wandered over. I was very worried that at some point someone would report us and we might not be able to take the cat on the bus. We signed up for the night bus, especially to be able to get him on in the dark!
As the elderly man wandered directly over to us in the dark, I braced myself for the worst. But instead he bowed and smiled. And with no English pointed to the cat, and looked questionably at me. He mimed eating some food, and I said, "We have some food," and showed him the dish. He mimed a drink, and I showed him the water dish. He gave a sigh of relief, bowed approvingly and wandered away. It was the only questions we were asked about traveling with the cat.
Soon after that Pita became interested in his litter box and went over to give it a scratch. I have mentioned in previous posts that in life, timing is everything. At about the same moment, some official decided to open the wall behind us, as it was made of sliding doors, (fusuma). I had not even noticed it wasn't a solid wall in the dark. And there were the 20 or so people in their chairs, waiting for various overnight buses, and there we were with Pita, who was now sitting in his box and going to the bathroom. He showed no embarrassment, however, that was left for we three humans, still laughing over the timing 20 years later. Perhaps not many actually were paying enough attention to notice, or perhaps with our luggage scattered about they could not see Pita. But he was now physically ready for the last phase of his voyage, the overnight bus from Fukuoka to Kagoshima.
The bus ride was uneventful. Overnight buses are set to arrive in the bustling morning hours, and we all slept peacefully when the bus pulled in to a rest area for the driver to rest as well to get the the timing right for a.m. arrival in Kagoshima. We only had to get on a local bus to get to our apartment and get settled.
Pita took no time at all getting settled. He sniffed everything out thoroughly, found the warmest spot which happened to be under the kotatsu and went to sleep. Pita would stay with me for 8 months, entertain my friends from around the world, and be a furry goodwill ambassador to the Japanese friends and students who came to visit my apartment until I took him back to Jason and Debbie in the summer. He was such a good buddy to have and hug through my first cold winter in Japan. And he will reappear in some of my future posts.
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| This was the most comfortable chair in my living room, a tatami perfect chair that someone put out on the curb to throw away. Nancy and I had seen it when we drove by, and she quickly backed up. We loaded it in her car and took it to my place. One woman's reject is another woman's tres chic decor. |
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