Cat refuses to move from Japanese convenience store on anniversary of store manager’s death

https://ift.tt/2XUlEMS Oona McGee

Animal’s mysterious actions make staff wonder if it was their manager returning in feline form to say one final goodbye…

If you’ve ever visited Japan, you may have noticed that the country is home to a lot of stray cats. Whether they’re enjoying life on one of Japan’s 11 cat islands, or lazing about at the cat temple, these strays have been connected to unusual events and are often believed to have powers beyond our understanding that are so great they can even find lost pets and reconnect them with their owners.

Now there’s a stray that’s got people wondering about the mysteries of the feline world yet again, after it arrived at the front of a Japanese convenience store one day and refused to move, forcing customers to step around it as they went in and out of the store.

What makes this cat’s actions even more of a mystery is the fact that it took place on the anniversary of the previous store manager’s death. Twitter user @ringroad1 captured the scene at a 7-Eleven in Gunma Prefecture earlier this month, snapping a pic of the cat and the sign which had been placed next to it by staff.

The sign reads:

“This cat suddenly came to our store early this morning. We led it far away from here but it has returned. We tried to lure it with pet food but it will not move.
Today is the anniversary of the death of our store’s manager so we’ve decided to see this situation as a special day. Please forgive us for the hindrance.”

だそうです。 https://t.co/Jsd97N2ouO

—
高崎Ring Road [店長部屋] (@ringroad1) July 10, 2019

According to the person who posted the tweet online, the cat refused to move, even though people walked past it and others called out to get its attention. It continued to stare fixedly into the store without shifting its gaze.

People online were immediately intrigued by the mysterious situation, leaving comments like:

“This is incredible! It’s like the manager loved the store so much they returned to it as a cat.”
“Three cats sit outside our house every day and I swear it’s my aunt and grandmother and grandfather.”
“These things really do happen – when someone on my mother’s side of the family passed away, a cat turned up shortly afterwards and took up residence in the family home.”
“Welcome home, store manager.”

Heightening the mystery is the fact that after the special day passed, the cat became weak and was taken to a pet hospital. While the fate of the feline remains unknown, people can’t help but feel this cat really was the manager saying one final goodbye to the store it once loved.

It seems we still have a long way to go before we can understand all the secrets of the feline universe, but if spirits of people really can manifest themselves in animals, it would go some way to explaining why cats like these are so proficient in the language of humans around them.

Source: Twitter/@ringroad1 
Featured image: Pakutaso
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