On July 11, 2013, I adopted two 3 months old male kittens. They are great teachers and companions.
At lunch time today at home, my husband started talking about cat story he heard. At the time of the great earthquake. It was about a cat that was talkative and meowed often. On March 11, 2011, the day of the earthquake, a few minutes before the big quake, the cat meowed as usual, but for the first time, the cat also pulled the owner’s sleeve insistently. the owner followed his cat out of the room he was in. Within a few minutes, the earthquake shook the house, and a heavy piece of furniture would have crushed that person should he stayed there when the cat meowed and pulled at him.
It reminded me once when we went on a long ride and the cat went with us. Usually the cat would purr and go to sleep when she got on the car, but this time, she raised racket, meowing loudly and scratching at the window to get out. We felt uncomfortable about her behavior, so we put on the seat belt which we usually didn’t bother with. 30 minutes later, the driver fell asleep, totaling the car. Miraculously, we were not hurt, thanks to having on the seat belt.
We don’t have any ready made answers to how the cats knew something was amiss. But I am confident in science. It may take many more years, but we will get there.
FUJIKO SUDA 