Caturday felid trifecta: A Useful Cat, Hachiko gets a feline companion, and cats crash Nativity scenes

I now have a comfortable backlog of Caturday Felids, so I can be at ease, leaving me to worry about the other stuff.  We start with a tw**t from Ryan Eby, showing, to my knowledge, the first time a cat has ever been helpful to a human:

Cats aren't as useless as everyone says. https://t.co/8Kb0BBAGCS

— Ryan Eby (@eby) November 2, 2015

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Second, you probably know the story of Hachiko the Akita Dog, the loyal pet of a Japanese professor. Hachiko accompanied his master (d*gs have mastere) to the train station every day on his way to work, but one day in 1925 the master didn’t come home: he had died at work of a cerebral hemorrhage. And so, it is said, the loyal Hachiko went to the station every day for ten years waiting in vain for his master to return. The dog has become a national hero in Japan, renowned for his loyalty, although some speak darkly of Hachiko’s fondness for the yakitori treats that admirers would buy him at the station. The d*gs story was made into an American movie, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale“, starring Richard Gere as the professor and an adorable (for a d*g) Akita. Here’s the original Hachiko:

As Wikipedia notes, statues to Hachi have been erected in Japan and the U.S.:

In April 1934, a bronze statue in his likeness was erected at Shibuya Station (35°39′32.6″N 139°42′2.1″E), and Hachikō himself was present at its unveiling. The statue was recycled for the war effort during World War II. In 1948 The Society for Recreating the Hachikō Statue commissioned. Takeshi Ando, son of the original artist, to make a second statue. When the new statue appeared, a dedication ceremony occurred. The new statue, which was erected in August 1948, still stands and is a popular meeting spot. The station entrance near this statue is named “Hachikō-guchi”, meaning “The Hachikō Entrance/Exit”, and is one of Shibuya Station’s five exits.

The Japan Times played an April Fools’ joke on readers by reporting that the bronze statue was stolen a little before 2:00 AM on April 1, 2007, by “suspected metal thieves”. The false story told a very detailed account of an elaborate theft by men wearing khaki workers’ uniforms who secured the area with orange safety cones and obscured the theft with blue vinyl tarps. The “crime” was allegedly recorded on security cameras.

A similar statue stands in Hachikō’s hometown, in front of Ōdate Station. In 2004, a new statue of Hachikō was erected on the original stone pedestal from Shibuya in front of the Akita Dog Museum in Odate.

The exact spot where Hachikō waited in the train station is permanently marked with bronze paw-prints and text in Japanese explaining his loyalty.

After the release of the American movie Hachi: A Dog’s Tale filmed in Woonsocket, RI, the Japanese Consulate in US helped the Blackstone ValleyTourism Council and the city of Woonsocket to unveil an identical statue of Hachiko at the Woonsocket Depot Square, which was the location of the “Bedridge” train station featured in the movie.

Now, as reported by Rocket News 24, one of the Hachiko statues has been pwned by a cat:

The Hachiko statue located outside Tokyo’s Shibuya Station is a famous landmark, and the space surrounding it is usually crawling with people, especially in the evenings and on weekends, as it serves as the go-to meeting spot in the area.

Being among the ranks of the busiest railway stations in Japan, Shibuya Station sees millions of passengers on a daily basis, and some of them have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Hachiko’s new companion, a well-groomed kitty cat who was spotted hanging out with Hachiko on several occasions.

By the looks of it, the cat is probably not a stray since it has been sporting different “fashion styles” on different days. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but since it was wearing pearl necklaces, we’re guessing Hachiko just got himself a new gal pal.

The Rocket site has several tw**ts from locals showing the unlikely pair.

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From Ranker we get 37—count them, 37—photos of cats crashing Nativity scenes. They apparently resent fealty being paid to baby Jesus instead of felids. Here are three of them:

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Update: Reader Charlie Jones sends his own Nativity Cat and the background:

Although we are not a religious family, we do have a nativity scene, but all of the characters are squid.  As soon as the scene went up we found Buster at least once a day sitting on the pad in front of it or resting his head inside of it.  It was Buster’s first Christmas, and I think this will be his annual tradition.

In the photo you can see the archangel squid reading some announcement to the cat.  In the manger you can see Mary Squid, Baby Squid, and at least one of the three wise squid.

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And, as lagniappe, here’s a tw**t from Harry Shearer showing a cat’s diffidence towards its fancy new toy. Press the arrow to play:

https://twitter.com/theharryshearer/status/683400372983967744/video/1

h/t: Pamela, Taskin, Matthew Cobb