Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

‘He’s coming back your way. Grab him!’

Satoru leapt towards the dog like a goalie. The Shih Tzu made a tight turn, trying to slip past, but Satoru managed to snag a hind leg. Panicked, the dog chomped down on his hand.

‘ Ow! ’

‘Hang on! Don’t let go!’

Sugi whipped off his blazer, threw it over the Shih Tzu and grabbed him. Swaddled, the dog finally gave up his struggle.

‘You okay?’ Sugi asked.

Satoru smiled wryly. ‘This could be pretty serious,’ he said, showing his hand. Spots of blood were bubbling up. For such a little creature, the dog certainly knew how to bite.

‘You’d better get to the hospital.’

No chance I’ll make that exam now, Sugi thought.

They took the dog to a police station beside the motorway, but when they went to the hospital there was a problem. Satoru didn’t have an insurance card. Being high-school students, they didn’t have enough cash either, so they ended up handing over their school ID cards and promising to come back and pay – and finally Satoru was treated.

By the time they got to school, second period was just finishing.

They went to the faculty office and explained to their form teacher what had happened. The whole thing sounded like a joke, but Satoru’s resemblance to a drowned rat, and his bandaged hand, must have convinced her, for the teacher accepted their version of events.

‘What happened to you guys?’ asked Chikako, playing the concerned older sister as the boys returned to the classroom.

When she heard about the rescued Shih Tzu, she wanted to see him, so they stopped at the police station on their way home from school. Satoru was concerned about the dog, too, so the three of them went together.

The old Shih Tzu with his cloudy eyes was on a lead in the corner of the lobby, bowls of dry dog biscuits and water next to it. No one had reported a missing dog.

‘He really is quite old. I don’t think he can see well at all.’ Chikako knelt down in front of the dog and waved her hand in front of his eyes. The Shih Tzu was slow to react.

‘I was wondering if we could ask you to take him,’ said a middle-aged police officer. ‘Looking after lost dogs isn’t really a policeman’s job, so we can’t keep him here for very long.’

‘If you can’t keep him here… then what will happen to him?’ Satoru asked.

The officer tilted his head. ‘If the owner doesn’t appear in the next few days, he’ll go to the pound.’

‘How could you!’ Chikako snapped. ‘You know they’ll put him down! If the owner doesn’t turn up in time—’

Satoru, pale and silent, nudged Sugi in the ribs. ‘How about keeping it at your place?’ he suggested. Instead of arguing with the officer, Satoru seemed to be looking for a practical solution.

‘No can do. My mum is allergic to any animal with fur. What about yours, Satoru?’

‘We’re in company housing and they don’t allow pets.’

Chikako, who was still carping at the police officer, turned around. ‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘We’ll keep him at ours.’

‘Are you sure you can make that decision right now? Shouldn’t you ask your parents or something?’

Satoru seemed alarmed by her snap decision, but Chikako just glared at him in irritation.

‘Well, we can’t just leave him here!’

Chikako called home from the payphone in the lobby. Almost an hour later, her father pulled up at the station in his small truck. They loaded her bike on to the truck bed, and Chikako got into the passenger seat and held the Shih Tzu on her lap.

‘Okay, see you soon!’ she called. ‘Satoru, if you’re worried about him, you can come and visit him at my place!’

‘Ah – thanks.’

Satoru seemed a bit intimidated by Chikako’s forceful manner.

Then Chikako was gone, like a storm departing, and the boys burst out laughing.

‘That Sakita-san is really something.’

‘She sure is. She’s always had strong views when it comes to animals, ever since she was little.’

‘Have you known her since she was a kid?’ Satoru wanted to know.

‘We’re childhood friends,’ Sugi explained.

‘I get it,’ Satoru said, nodding. ‘So that’s why Sakita-san calls you Shu-chan?’

‘I told her to drop that.’

‘What’s wrong with it? She’s your cute, dependable childhood friend.’

The way he’d casually called her cute startled Sugi. Chikako was spirited, kind and, yes, cute. He’d always known that. Still, Sugi had never spoken about these things out loud.

It made him feel like he’d lost out.

‘But will her family really be okay about taking in an unknown dog without any warning?’ Satoru asked.

‘It’ll be fine. Her family are mad about animals. They have five or six dogs and cats already.’

‘Really? Cats, too?’

‘Chikako’s more of a cat person.’

‘I see,’ Satoru said, smiling. ‘I love cats, too. I wouldn’t mind making sure the Shih Tzu’s okay, but it would be nice to see her cats, too.’

Sugi was hit by another wave of anxiety. It was clear Satoru and Chikako were going to get on well.

That evening, Chikako phoned Sugi. The fact that he had missed taking the exam in order to rescue the dog had made an impression on her.

‘By the way,’ she asked, ‘which one of you found it?’

Sugi wished he’d been the one who’d come across the dog – the thought of saying this had crossed his mind. But if I had, I probably would have just let him be. Perhaps the most I would have done would have been to check on him on the way home.

‘Well, we were both passing at about the same time.’

A little white lie.

‘But I think Satoru actually spotted him first,’ he added hastily.

‘We haven’t spoken much up till now, but Satoru’s a pretty good guy.’

Chikako seemed to like Satoru a lot. He had known she would.

The three of them often talked together after this. And Satoru and Sugi often went to Chikako’s house to see how the Shih Tzu was settling in.

Whenever Sugi went to see Chikako, he’d be put to work helping out in the orchards, as would Satoru. From the way he spoke, Satoru seemed like a real city boy, but he was, surprisingly, used to farm work, and Chikako’s family quickly grew fond of him.

The stray Shih Tzu’s owner never did materialize, so the Sakita family ended up keeping him permanently. Satoru felt badly about it and said he’d try to find somebody to take the dog, but Chikako waved this away.

The younger Shih Tzu they already had got on with the new one – they were like parent and child – and, typically for Chikako, she referred to the latter as ‘the Shih Tzu Miyawaki gave us’.

The cats at the Sakitas’ were friendlier to Satoru than to Sugi. They had, from the start, sensed that Sugi was more of a dog person. Things evened out, though, since the dogs were much friendlier to him than to Satoru. ‘The Shih Tzu Miyawaki gave us’, perhaps remembering how Satoru had been the one to chase him down, was friendlier to Sugi than to Satoru, who had found him.

One day at school, Satoru was leafing through the part-time jobs listings in the newspaper. The end-of-term exams were approaching, and their teachers had joked with them not to pick up any more stray dogs.

‘Are you looking for a holiday job?’ Sugi asked.

‘Yeah… I was wondering if there’re any with a decent hourly rate.’

‘How come? Isn’t your allowance enough?’

‘No, it’s just that I want to take a trip during the summer holiday, and I’d like to go as soon as possible.’

‘Where to?’

‘Kokura.’

Sugi didn’t know the place.

‘It’s in Fukuoka prefecture. Just before Hakata,’ Satoru explained.