he Japanese love cat stories, specially ones that deal with cats interacting and improving their owners. And this book is nothing short of that.

Kyoto (as I remember from my trip there) is a town arranged in a neat grid, everything lined up nicely. Further, there is the old geisha quarter just across the river, still active. So, interesting place.

What I didn’t know is that is an alley that can only be located if you really need to locate it, one that leads to a run-down building. At the top of five flights of stairs, a large door. Go inside and it’s a small clinic. Get past the officious nurse at the front desk and you’ll be shown the doctor, a youngish man with a quirky nature and nutty grin. And, always, he will prescribe you a cat. The nurse will bring it into the room in a carrier, give you a small list of instructions (often misleading or even wrong) and some supplies.Then out the door you go, blinking, your cat meowing in its carrier.

Too busy to mind a cat? Working long hours? Have a wife that is allergic to cats? Doesn’t matter. For the short span of your prescription, you now have a cat living with you. And author Syou Ishida captures the essence of feline independence well. Some cats delight their owners. Some vex them. More often then not, the cats create challenges. Yet at the end of the prescription, you see the life-change that has affected the patent. Sweet stories. Interesting stories.

And interrelated stories. At first, I thought the book was nothing more than a series of vinyettes. But then a character comments on something strange, and suddenly the overall linkages between the stories becomes available in a mystical, magical sort of way.

So well worth the read if you love cats. Or good storytelling. Loved it!

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