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The Yomiuri Shimbun Hideko Takabayashi cares for Mei, her deceased mother’s cat, in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on June 19.
By Chisato Tsukahara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
6:00 JST, July 13, 2024
WAJIMA, Ishikawa — Six months after the major earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula, one calico cat still won’t leave its damaged home. Named Mei, she lived in the house with her owner, who was killed in the quake, for about 10 years.
The owner’s eldest daughter, Hideko Takabayashi, a 66-year-old part-time worker from Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, drives to the house every day to feed the cat. She keeps hoping that the cat will open up to her.
“Come here and eat the food,” Takabayashi called out to Mei in mid June after arriving at her mother’s house, about 20 minutes away by car from her own home. There was a quiet meow, and then the cat appeared from the gap in a gutter. When Takabayashi offered food on a paper plate, Mei dug into it.
Courtesy of Hideko Takabayashi Kazue Ueno, who was killed in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake
Takabayashi visited her mother, Kazue Ueno, then 86, on New Year’s Day. “Come back tomorrow with your husband,” her mother told her. Then after Takabayashi left, the earthquake struck. Her mother’s house was declared “totally destroyed,” though it has just barely managed to stay standing. Kazue was killed by a nearby building that collapsed on her while she was evacuating.
Kazue loved cats and dogs. After her husband died, an acquaintance gave her Mei, and she took good care of the cat. “Even if I don’t eat, I have to make sure Mei gets enough to eat,” she would say. Mei would stick close to Kazue wherever she went, whether she was going to the fields or out to do some weeding. At night, the cat would curl up to Kazue and sleep with her.
After the earthquake, Takabayashi found it difficult to visit her mother’s home. And when she passed where her mother was killed, it wrung her heart. But about a month and a half after the disaster, an acquaintance said: “I’ve seen Mei.” Worried about whether the cat was eating properly, she made up her mind and went to look for her.
Mei was extremely shy at first and kept hidden. It was the end of March that Takabayashi finally managed to see the cat. After she called out to Mei several times, the cat appeared from the rubble. She seemed hungry and ate all the food Takabayashi had brought. Though Mei soon slipped away, Takabayashi was happy to see her. “My mother must have left the cat for me,” Takabayashi thought to herself.
Mei would eat the food Takabayashi brought, but as soon as she was done, she would leave right away. Takabayashi said it seems as if the cat is waiting for her mother, not her. She feels like the cat is asking her, “Where is the grandma who has been taking care of me?” But Mei has begun to ask for seconds and sometimes lies down on her back. When Takabayashi tries to touch Mei, she stiffens and hisses or runs away, but Takabayashi hopes to bring Mei back home with her one day.
On July 1, Kazue’s birthday, Takabayashi offered flowers in front of her mother’s photo. Then she sat down and spoke to her mother. “Mei won’t take a liking to me. Please tell her to trust me, Mom,” she said.
